7: Redemption - Desert Storm
by nurzubesuch
Summary: A chase. A rescue mission. A quest. They say many ways can lead to the same destination. But do you know the destination? If you think you do, you might wanna think again. Because the road to redemption is never what it seems, and sometimes all it takes is a decision, to face the storm. Literally.
1. In the Beginning

**Welcome back, my dear, faithful friends. Two weeks have passed, since we last met. And now we have story number seven. Is that a lucky number? I guess we´ll see. Let´s get straight to it, shell we? **

**Disclaimer (before I forget it again): Nothing of this is mine. Only the plot that comes pouring out of my mind for no reason at all.**

* * *

**In the Beginning**

The wind was howling above them, over the edges of the small passage way that led through the mountain. Dirt and sand was stinging into Shawn´s face and he had to squint to not to be blinded. Still it hurt, every time a grain hit his eyes. So many of them.

First he´d still tried to wipe it out, but he soon learned that this was the wrong tactic, that wiping only made it worse. So he let his tears run and take care of what threatened his eyesight. Still his face was dry. The wind dried the tears faster than they could run down his cheeks.

He stumbled, against the wall, and stayed there for a moment, gasping, his heart hammering in his chest.

"IT´S NO USE, SHAWN!" Gus shouted next to him, trying to be heard over the howling of the storm. "WE´RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT!"

Shawn didn´t know anything else to respond, other than: "WE HAVE TO, GUS!"

And he pushed himself off the wall, staggering forward, always heading for the end of that ravine. They were almost there, after what seemed like an eternity.

"IT´S SUICIDE TO GET BACK OUT THERE!" Gus shouted, his hand clinging into the back of Shawn´s shirt, trying to hold him back. "I´LL STAY HERE!" he stated. "AND SO SHOULD YOU!"

"DON´T BE RIDICULOUS!" Shawn shouted back at him. „THE WORST OF THE STORM IS BEHIND US! WE´RE PERFECTLY SAVE!"

"ARE YOU SURE?"

"OF COURSE I AM!"

"I DON´T BELIEVE YOU!"

Shawn threw his head back, groaning, too quiet to be heard in this storm. But even Gus, who´d constantly held his arm protectively over his eyes, had to see the gesture. And then, there were shots.

Shawn swirled around, to the exit of the passage way, only a dozen feet away.

"THAT´S LASSIE!" he shouted, half ecstatic – it was a sign of life after all – half scared to death. "COME ON!" he pulled on Gus´ arm. "WE NEED TO GET THERE!"

"NO, SHAWN. I WON´T …"

A sound, much louder than the howling storm, exploded over their heads, over the ravine. Shawn´s head snapped up and he saw rocks, raining down on them. He met Gus´ eyes and they both started to scream.

"RUN, GUS! RUUUUUUUN!"

And of course they ran. Faster than they would have thought it possible with that wind still fighting them. But the rumbling noise above them, approaching so damn fast, was like a shot of pure energy, directly into their veins.

Shawn had no idea how they made it, but they left the ravine, only a second before the rocks crashed down behind them, closing the entrance back in there for good. He hit the ground, dust swirling up, surrounding him, but only for a moment, before the wind blew it away again. He coughed, sneezed and groaned over the spiky stone in his rip he´d landed on. But other than that, he was all right. Still alive, not squeezed down to a fax paper. Amazing. A miracle.

He exhaled, loudly.

"Wohoooo! Man, dude. That was close. Right, Gus?"

When he didn´t get a response, he turned around, looking to his right. Gus was there, lying beside him in the dust. But he didn´t move.

"Oh, no." Shawn crawled over to him, shaking him. "Gus!" He got no reaction. "GUS!"

Again there were shots ringing out, but the circling wind, and the high walls of the mountains, made it impossible to decide where the sound came from. They could be everywhere and Shawn couldn´t see a thing.

"How can you even be hurt?" he shouted at Gus. "You left the ravine before me."

Again there were shots and this time Shawn looked up, trying to spot them. It sounded so close. But the wind still howled in his ears and the howling was more than just deafening. It was frightening, almost like the snarl of an hungry animal. Lightnings were flashing in the distance, red and yellow, as if they came directly from out of hell, supporting the scary sound of the wind with their shattering thunder.

Shawn didn´t plan to look ahead, not to see _that_. He was still trying to see anything in the near distance, a sign of Lassie or Jules or any of the others. But instead his eyes got fixed on the plain.

The sky was dark, too dark to see anything, especially with this wind still throwing dirt into his face. But those lightnings created a perfect illumination, even if it was only for a few seconds each time. But those few seconds were enough to see the tornados, dark as the sky and big like the finger of god. Three of them. Not just one, for gods sake, but three. Three! And they were all heading directly for them.

"Oh, my god!"

Shawn could hear more shots ringing out. He wanted to call out for them, wanted to warn them, to stop fighting and take cover, but he knew it was too late. The storms were here. And he didn´t need to be a psychic to know that they would all die.

"How do we always end up in these kind of situations?" he shouted, throwing himself over Gus, not caring how ridiculous the gesture was against a force like this and prayed for the storm to pass and let them live.

**...**

A day earlier:

It was too much. Gus just couldn´t stand it anymore. The force of it all was killing him, slowly, in a deceivingly addicting way, but there was simply no other way than that it would lead to a disaster. In the end it was always evil to allow such temptations. Why, oh why was Shawn so oblivious to this danger?

"Shawn!" he cried. "I really think we should keep it down."

His best friend only spread his arms at the comment. Of course he didn´t understand the problem. He never did. He never saw the danger. That´s why he always needed Gus to help him see it. To change his point of view so he could see it from the right angle. Because lying on this amazingly soft hotel bed, watching a movie on this awesomely big plasma screen, was not the right angle to see things straight. Especially not with the movie shown on the screen was something as visually stimulating as Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen.

Gus had to admit, that he´d been amazed by the quality of the picture as well. But Shawn´s tendency to exaggerate and the exorbitant order to room service, complete with wraps and Champagne had opened Gus´ eyes for what was really happening here. And for the consequences they all would face if this would come out. The only thing he didn´t understand was, why Juliet hadn´t realized it too. Shawn, that was nothing new. But Juliet. She should know better than to lie on that bed with him, watching this movie and eating wraps as if all this was totally normal.

"There´s no need to take advantage of the situation like that." he told them both, like a teacher that tried to reason with some cocky teenagers. "The government is not paying our stay here so we can have a party."

"I didn´t even think about a party yet." Shawn cried, frowning. "Good idea."

"Shawn!"

"Maybe he´s right." Juliet finally contemplated, restoring Gus´ trust in her right mind. "It´s not … really okay … to exploit it like that." she said, sitting up, finally not as comfortable anymore as she´d been before. "I mean we got lucky that they didn´t lock us up for treason."

"Exactly." Shawn cried, not a bit irritated. "And now we´re sitting here, in this amazing hotel, first class, with all the luxury that we earned by saving the world. Three times."

"Actually it was four times, Shawn." Gus corrected without thinking.

Shawn threw his open hand at him, reassured in everything he´d said before.

"See what I mean? So what´s wrong with indulging in this gratitude for a little while? Uh. Oh, that´s the best part." he pointed at the screen, excited beyond human standards. "Watch this."

Juliet´s expression of uncertain guilt was washed away, when she faced the screen again, watching the scene in high definition, with all its hilarity in it, a huge smile on her face. The way this former so straight ass politician was suddenly peeing himself facing the fact that he should jump out of a perfectly good airplane over the desert of Egypt, was just hilarious. When the Mayor slapped his face to make him listen up and pay attention, Shawn and Juliet rolled on their backs laughing.

"Aw, come on, Gus." Shawn cried, when Gus was stubbornly facing away from the screen. "I mean … this is Tranformers."

"I don´t care what it is, Shawn." Gus insisted. "We´re not supposed to act like irresponsible kids around here. We´re in Washington."

"And … we have this." Shawn turned up the volume, filling the room with the most amazing soundtrack Gus had ever listened to … at least in Dolby surround sound.

"Say for yourself, Gus. Is that quality not worth it?"

Gus allowed himself to throw a glance at the screen, where the majestic picture of the famous rock monument of Ad Deir was raising in all it´s splendor and beauty. Oh, and that music … it was just so …

"I tell you, we should get one of these screens for our office." Shawn told him.

Facing his friend´s victorious smile, Gus suddenly realized what he was doing and shook his head.

"It´s still not right, Shawn. I will not be a part of it. And we already have a TV in our office."

Shawn only shrugged. "I´m proud of you, Gus. You´re absolutely incorruptible."

"You know that´s right."

"But that also means, you´ll miss the final battle scene in the desert … in High Definition." he sing sang, making Gus snort about this ridiculous try to tempt him.

Again Shawn turned up the volume and the sound of it, the sound of explosions that terrified the movie-characters who were fighting for their lives and their planet´s survival, roared through the suite.

"Say, Jules." Shawn probed, watching Gus´ reaction closely. "Did you ever see something as crystal clear as this?"

Juliet smirked, trying not to. "Ehm, no." she said. "I can honestly say, that this is the most impressive picture I ever saw in a …" Another explosion happened in the movie, drawing her attention. "WOW!" she cried, hooked to the action of the plot.

Shawn cried out along with her, laughing excited. "Wooooo! That´s AWESOME."

"It is." Juliet agreed, laughing too.

On the screen the last battle about earth´s survival was taking place in the desert of Egypt, completely with high tech battle equipment and huge alien robots. And even though Gus knew it was wrong, he could not help but was drawn into the pull of all these amazing pictures. Maybe, he figured, just maybe, it was all right, to enjoy it at least a little bit.

**...**

What was this, Lassiter wondered. The one constant factor in all of their lives as it seemed. Sylar, the serial killer, once again on the run and they, he and Noah, trying to figure out, what to do about it. How did it always come to this point? How often had they been in this place? And how the hell was it, that they always seemed to be the only ones that realized how important this was? Not even O´Hara seemed to bother.

She was fooling around with Spencer and Guster, taking advantage of the fact that the government was paying for their stay. They only forgot that this was not a vacation, that it was a highly official investigation of the Secret Service and that none of them was allowed to leave the city, not even this hotel without telling the Secret Service where they were going.

Lassiter sighed, shaking his head. Since when was O´Hara so oblivious to something like that? It was almost embarrassing how she allowed Spencer to influence her, especially in front of the FBI. He would not do that. He would focus. And even more important, he would catch that son of a bitch Sylar, before he could kill again.

They´d found his cell phone outside of the White House, in the rose garden. The search for him was still ongoing, but so far he hadn´t resurfaced. Yet. But he would. Sooner or later he would get back into his old game, Lassiter was sure of it. And so was Noah. Lassiter watched him, talking to his girlfriend Lauren on the phone, trying to get some insider information.

Eventually he closed the phone.

"And?"

Noah shook his head. "Nothing. Except for his cell phone, there´s nothing that would help us find him."

Lassiter snorted. "You mean what would help _them_ find him." he mentioned. "I start to feel like being imprisoned. We´re put aside, away from the case, while the FBI and Secret Service are handling what´s rightfully our responsibility. We should be working the case. We should be out there, chasing the bastard."

He met Noah´s calm eyes. "The good news is …" the Company man spoke. "That the investigation is almost done. Lauren guesses that they´ll be finished in the morning, that means we are free to leave soon."

Lassiter threw back his head. "Thanks god." he groaned. "It´s about time."

When he met Noah´s gaze this time, there was something strange in his friend´s eyes. "We can still chase Sylar, Carlton." he told him.

Not that he didn´t appreciate the enthusiasm, but there was still a tiny problem about the plan.

"And how are we supposed to find him?" he asked Noah and sure enough the question silenced the Company man for a minute.

"I´d like to have a talk with Suresh." he announced at last. "He was the last one who talked to Sylar before he vanished. He might know where to start."

Lassiter nodded. That made sense. When Noah left the room to cross the hallway, Lassiter followed.

The scientist had room number 417 only two doors from Noah´s, three doors from Lassiter´s. They´d been billeted in one hallway. The government had rented the whole story of the hotel, in order to keep them as isolated from the public as possible.

It wasn´t that they were locked up, they were allowed to leave the hotel whenever they wanted, as long as they signed off. And sure enough some agents would follow them behind, discretely, wherever they went. An arrangement, only for their own safety, and for the safety of the investigation. And sometimes it was snowing in the desert, Lassiter thought but didn´t say anything. As long as they cooperated, they got treated with respect. Spencer and Guster sure didn´t mind the arrangement.

Noah knocked on the scientist´s door, an act of pure politeness and Suresh let them in.

"All I know is what he told me." he informed them after Noah´d asked his questions.

"And what was that?" Lassiter wanted to know.

"Not where he went." the geneticist clarified at once. "He just said that he planned to stop Nathan from killing the President, by taking on the form of the President." He shrugged. "It sounded crazy to me. I tried to talk him out of it … and failed. You know the rest."

"Just as we thought." Noah nodded. "A plan like that sounds very much like Sylar."

"He said, he planned to do it to save the President." Suresh added for consideration, earning himself a long glance from Noah.

"You believe him?"

"He also said, he couldn´t guarantee that he wouldn´t be tempted." the scientist went on. "I don´t know what to believe."

"Crap." Lassiter grumbled. "The guy´s a murderer and now he´s on the lose again. Your plan to keep him in line and watch over him failed and now we can wait for the next victim to pop up in the ditch."

"Carlton´s right. We need to find him before he stumbles across some Special with an interesting ability." He glanced at the scientist. "Mohinder?"

"Are you seriously asking him for his permission?" Lassiter cried in disbelieve but was ignored.

"We could use Molly to find him." Noah explained his plan to Mohinder.

It was evident in the doctor´s eyes, that he´d literally gotten the hint just in this moment.

"I´d rather not tell her that Sylar´s gone." he said. "That we don´t know where he is or what he´ll do. She´d never sleep again."

"Would _you_?" Noah replied. "Do you really want to have it on your conscience, Mohinder, that we could have stopped him before he could kill again? I don´t think so."

The scientist lowered his eyes, finally getting the point. Lassiter watched him think.

"Under one condition." he spoke at last. "When you go after him, you take me with you."

"Forget it." the detective spilled before Noah had a chance. "He´s a liability and he´s a civilian, no matter how strong you are. You stay where you are."

"Then see how you find him on your own." Suresh got up to face him at eye-level, daring him to deny him his wish. Who did he think he was?

Lassiter held his gaze, for a moment. "You know what?" he spoke at last, not a bit intimidated. "Screw you. We don´t need you. We don´t need him, Noah. We can talk to the girl without his permission."

"You come anywhere near Molly and you won´t be able to go after Sylar for at least a few months."

Lassiter turned back to him. "Are you threatening me?"

Suresh raised a brow. "Seems I do."

Lassiter reached for his gun. It wasn´t that he actually intended to use it, but the gesture was still clear. Suresh tensed, even though his gaze never flinched.

"Gentlemen." Noah called out, stepping forward. "Carlton, please." He turned to face Suresh. "If it is your condition to come along, okay." he spoke. "But I need to know if you´re really with us then … when push comes to shove."

"I want to come along, because I couldn´t live with myself, if Sylar killed again and I could have done something." Suresh explained himself. "I want to stop him before he kills again. Just like you."

Noah raised a brow, searching Carlton´s gaze. "That enough for you, detective?"

Lassiter looked into the eyes of this so called scientist, and huffed. "We´ll have to see."

Noah nodded, as if this had been a Yes. "All right." he said. "Then it is settled. As soon as we´re officially done here and allowed to leave the city … what should be tomorrow, I guess … we´ll have a talk with Molly."

Lassiter studied the face of the doctor before him, but this time he didn´t seem to disagree with the plan. Not verbally at least.

**...**

As it seemed his guess, the investigation would be closed sometime the next day, had been too long. Only a few hours later, Lauren called him on his cell phone, to tell him the case was officially closed and that the NSA would inform them all, right in this moment. Noah would have lied if he´d claimed not to be relieved.

"What are you gonna do now?" she asked him.

"Well, first I´ll have a talk with a young girl." Noah immediately replied. "And then I guess I´ll head out to catch myself a killer. You know. Same old, same old."

Lauren didn´t laugh. She wasn´t even smiling when she replied: "Tell me if you need any help."

"´f course I will." he promised. "See you soon."

"Bye, Noah. Good luck. And be careful."

"I will. Bye."

He got up to leave his room, to get Carlton and Suresh and eventually Molly, so they could start hunting down the killer at last. Carlton was right about that, it was about time they got out of here. Two weeks were long enough, to sit around and wait for the FBI to investigate something that was already over. Now it was time to move on.

He opened the door, and recoiled when Carlton was already standing there, waiting for him.

"Goddamn, Carlton." he gasped. "Were you camping out here?"

"Lightly called me." the detective informed him, ignoring the heart attack he´d almost caused. "The investigation is closed."

"I know. Lauren just told me. God, I think, I´m getting old."

"That means we´re finally getting out of here." Lassiter insisted on his subject.

Noah nodded, giving in. It wasn´t that he couldn´t understand the detective´s determination.

"Let´s talk to Suresh." he said. "And then we´ll call Molly."

Carlton only nodded, keeping up his pace and somehow he reached the door even faster than Noah, knocking eagerly to be let in. He got no answer. His second knock was regarded with the same silence.

"Suresh, it´s us." he called. "Open up."

Noah frowned at the missing answer and tried the doorknob. "Mohinder?"

The door wasn´t locked, the room was empty.

"Strange." Noah murmured. "Maybe he went down to the snack bar."

Lassiter only snorted. "Yeah, sure."

He made his way down the hall, knocking on his partner´s door. "O´Hara." he called. Again he got no answer. Again he knocked, stronger. "O´Hara!" he shouted and loosing his patience, tried it at Shawn Spencer´s door. "Spencer!" he shouted. "Guster. Anyone, dammit."

His eyes met Noah´s over the length of the hallway and by now even he had to realize that something was not quiet right. He tried the door and it opened without resistance. No one was inside. No Spencer, no Guster, no O´Hara.

Noah tried the other rooms and found them as empty as the first ones. No Parkman, no Petrelli, no Hiro. No one. Maybe one of them might have left for a snack, but all of them? All together?

"What the hell is going on here?"

* * *

**Short intro to this one, I know. But don´t worry. More´s about to come. Leave me a review so I know if you are interested in more ;-)**


	2. First Act - In the Hotel

**First Act – In the Hotel**

Lassiter glanced at Bennet, wishing desperately that he could aim his gun at something. But he couldn´t. Because no one was here. Really no one. Every room they´d checked was empty, as if the whole floor was evacuated. Only that there hadn´t been any kind of alarm that would have initiated this. And that left only one explanation.

"They must have been kidnapped." Lassiter spilled his perfect explanation, causing Bennet to gape, brows raised.

"By whom?" the Company man asked. "Sylar?"

Carlton shrugged. "He´s done stranger things."

"But not this. He might be able to do many things, but we´ve been here all this time." He hesitated, narrowing his eyes. "That is … _I_ was here. What about you?"

"What?" Carlton cried. "I was in my room. Trying to figure out this mess."

"And you didn´t hear anything?"

"A few footsteps crossing the hall once in a while. That´s all."

"When was the last time you heard that?"

Lassiter lowered his eyes. "Don´t know. An hour ago?"

Bennet nodded. "Sounds about right." he agreed with his own observations, however subconscious they might have been. "But I didn´t hear any sounds of a fight. Or sounds of a body getting dragged down the hall."

"What are you trying to say?"

"That it is highly unlikely that someone came in here and kidnapped all of them without us noticing it."

Lassiter gritted his teeth and got out his cell phone. Without saying a word, he pressed the one. O´Hara´s button. His anger subsided, overlapped by fear, when he didn´t get an answer. Only the ringing. Two of them. Three. Four. Please, answer. Please, be all right.

And then, at last: "Hello?"

He exhaled. Thanks god. "O´Hara, where the hell are you?" he barked into the phone. "Everyone is gone."

"Oh, I´m so sorry, Carlton." she coaxed, voice uneven. Nervous. "Shawn heard of this show … and we went out."

"Wha …" A show? He just couldn´t believe it. "All of you? Including the Petrellis?"

There was a brief pause in the line. "No." she answered, stunned. "I … I don´t know where _they_ are. Maybe they´re in the lobby of the hotel?"

"Whatever." Carlton grumbled. "Never mind them. Where are you right now?"

"Ehm, in the city. I don´t know where exactly but … there´s a restaurant over there and …"

"You know what, forget it." Carlton talked over her. "Is Spencer with you? And Guster?"

"Sure." came her answer, quickly.

In the background he could hear a female voice: "Detective. It´s your turn."

"All right, I´m coming. Ehm, listen Carlton, I´ve gotta go. I see you when we´re back, okay? Bye."

"O´Hara, wait." he cried but the silence in his ear was not encouraging. "O´Hara? O´ … Dammit."

"What?" Noah asked. "What did she say?"

Lassiter sighed, looking at his phone. "I´m not sure."

Noah exhaled, more frustrated than he should be. "That´s not good, Carlton. It´s no coincidence that everybody is gone all the sudden."

"She said they´re in the city." Lassiter told him.

"And you believe her?"

The detective frowned. "It sounded like they´re at the public place. She´s my partner, why should she lie?"

"Okay, okay." Noah held up his hands. "Even if … they are there. That doesn´t explain where Suresh went. Or the Petrellis."

"You have the number of the mad scientist. Call him."

Noah took out his phone, feeling more and more uncomfortable, and dialed the number. But other than Carlton, he didn´t get an answer.

"Of course not." Lassiter growled, giving him a look as if to say: Didn´t I tell you that before? But he didn´t say it. Instead he took his own phone again, dialing a number.

"Who are you calling?" Noah asked.

"Spencer. Henry Spencer. We´re talking to the girl now, no matter what Suresh says."

He didn´t have to wait very long this time. Henry answered after the second ring.

"Henry, it´s Lassiter." Carlton spoke. "We need to talk to the girl."

"What girl?" Henry asked. "Molly?"

"What other girl is currently living in your house?"

"Molly´s not here anymore. Your Chinese friend brought her back home, a few days ago."

Lassiter felt as if his face was falling down. "What?"

"Yeah. This doctor asked him to do that. So she could go on with her life back home and go back to school. A good idea, if you ask me. I´m not a baby sitter and the girl didn´t seem very happy to be here anyway."

Lassiter couldn´t believe it. He stood there and stared into nothing, not able to say a single word in response.

"Carlton? Are you still th …?"

He hung up. "Dammit. She´s not there anymore."

"What?" Noah´s reaction was the exact mirror for his own.

"Apparently, Suresh asked our friend Hiro to bring her back home." the detective told him.

But the reaction he´d expected, didn´t come. Instead of being irritated by the news, Noah only lowered his eyes, thinking.

"New York." he murmured, looking down on the phone in his hands.

After a minute of thinking, he dialed again.

"Who do you call?" Lassiter asked but Noah only listened to the ringing, until he got an answer.

"Angela." he greeted. "It´s Noah. I´d like to talk to Molly. Is she there?" He nodded. "She´s getting her now." he informed Carlton.

"Did Suresh mention anything to you about this?" the detective wanted to know. Noah shook his head.

"Molly." he greeted, seriously. "Sorry that I have to call you, but I need your help. I don´t want you to worry, but we …" Carlton grabbed his hand to put the phone on speaker phone. "… need to know where Mohinder is at the moment." Noah threw the detective a glance. "He doesn´t answer his phone and it´s important that I speak to him. So if you could tell me where I can find him, then I´ll go to him. Would you do that for me?"

For a few seconds he didn´t get a response, only silence. Then: "Is anything wrong?"

"Let´s just say I hope not."

Again there was silence in the line.

"Molly?" he asked. And then there was a gasp.

"He´s in Arizona." she told him, and she sounded as if she´d asked: what the hell? "I thought you guys were in Washington."

"We are." Noah met Carlton´s gaze. "Last time I spoke to Mohinder, he was here too."

"Then how did he get to Arizona?" the girl asked.

Noah needed only one moment to know the answer.

"Hiro."

After another moment of silence, Molly affirmed, surprised: "You´re right. He´s in Arizona too. But he´s not with Mohinder. What is going on?"

"I´d like to know that too, Molly." Noah murmured.

"Molly, detective Lassiter here." Carlton spoke. "Can you tell us where _Sylar_ is?"

Silence. Then, as expected: "Sylar´s in Arizona too." By now, her voice was really worried, uncertain. "Mr. Bennet. What is the meaning of this?"

Noah sighed. "I don´t know, Molly." he admitted. "But we´re going to find out. I let you know as soon as I get the word, I promise."

"All right." was all she would reply, her voice small and uncertain.

Noah finished the call and immediately dialed anew. Hiro´s number this time. He feared to get the same reaction as earlier, when he´d tried Suresh´s phone. But he didn´t. This time it was even worse.

"That´s not good." he said.

"What?"

"The phone´s out of order. Something´s wrong. We won´t get any answers that way."

"An answer to what?" a totally unexpected voice made them both swirl around.

The two Petrelli´s were standing in the door, frowning at them as if they´d caught them, wearing heads of tinfoil.

"Where the hell have you been?" Lassiter shouted at them, causing the frowns to deepen even more.

"Downstairs." Peter answered. "Having dinner? Why? What´s going on?"

"Was any of the others downstairs too?" Bennet wanted to know, daring to hope, just a little.

"Only Parkman." Nathan exchanged a glance with his brother.

"He left to go to town, getting a souvenir for his wife." Peter affirmed. "Why?"

Noah didn´t answer. He was trying to think, quickly.

"Peter." he addressed the young man. "Tell me you still have Hiro´s powers. Can you still teleport?"

Again he was regarded with a startled frown. "Yes. Why?"

"We need to get to Arizona. Right now. Sylar´s there. Suresh and Hiro went after him, they could be in danger."

Peter glanced at Lassiter, briefly. "Why should they be in danger?" he asked.

"Because I think Sylar is after Alice, Peter." Noah revealed, watching the other man´s reaction closely. Even Peter had to understand the meaning of that. He just had to.

But Peter only stared at him, glancing around for a moment, considering. Eventually he shook his head.

"I don´t think he is."

"If he knows about her, he is." Bennet insisted. "Do you really want to take that chance?"

"Who´s Alice?" Lassiter demanded to be a part of the conversation again.

"Angela Petrelli´s sister." Noah explained, never leaving Peter´s eyes. "And a very powerful woman. Just as Sylar likes it."

"What reason could he have to harm her?" Peter demanded to know. But it was his brother, not Bennet, who gave him the answer.

"Because it´s Sylar." Nathan looked at him, irritated. "Pete. Are you serious?"

"It´s not like you think, Nathan." the younger Petrelli tried to explain. "Sylar changed. It´s been years since he …"

"What?" the older brother talked over him. "Since he killed me?"

His eyes were piercing, almost accusingly staring at his brother, the man that had buried him once, swearing to avenge his death. A death caused by the man they were now talking about.

Peter sighed. "It´s not easily explained in just a minute." he said.

"Talking of which." Noah decided to take over again, before this talk mutated into a family therapy session. "Right now we don´t have that minute. I tried to reach Hiro but his phone´s out of order. Suresh isn´t answering either. They could be in danger. So will you bring us to Arizona, Peter, or not?"

The younger man only needed a moment of consideration. He nodded, and stepped forward to touch their shoulders, guessing, and rightfully so, that they were ready to go there right now. Before he could close his eyes though, his brother reached out a hand and lay it on his arm.

"What are you doing?" Peter cried.

"What do you think, I´m doing?" Nathan replied. "I´m coming with you. If you believe it or not, but I could actually help. If Sylar´s out there, I´ll help to catch him again. Just like last time."

"Last time you died."

Nathan lay his head askew, only for a moment. "I won´t this time around." he assured him.

"Fine." Lassiter rolled his eyes. "Now that we´ve settled, that we´ll look out for each other … can we please go now?"

Peter only nodded, grimly, and closed his eyes.

**...**

He brought them straight to the one and only place, he could think of in Arizona. The one place, Sylar would head for if, if, he really was looking for Alice.

The four of them looked around. The place was deserted and quiet, just the way it had been last time they´d been there, in Coyote Sands, that old camp that, after all those years, had been forgotten by the human race. The only sound they heard was that of the wind, blowing through the old baracks, while the sun was heading for the horizon. Soon the night would come over this place.

"I guess Molly didn´t tell you where exactly in Arizona they are, did she?" Peter asked, glancing at Noah.

The Company man looked back at him, warily. "How do you know it was her who told us?"

"How else would you know where they were?" Peter replied.

Noah grumbled, and drew his gun, glancing around. Next to him Carlton was swaying, just a little.

"You okay?" Noah asked, concerned.

"I don´t feel so good." Lassiter replied, not looking at Bennet, a hand on his stomach.

Peter nodded, understanding at once. "Travel sickness." he clarified. "Happens to some people when they teleport for the first time. Just take your time, it´ll pass."

Lassiter scowled. "I don´t have time to feel si – aaarrrrrp."

His last word ended in a hollow gulp and he closed his mouth quickly, blushing embarrassed. Bennet raised his brows. So did Nathan.

"Maybe I can afford a minute." the detective decided at last.

Bennet nodded. "I´ll have a look around." he said, padding his back. "I´ll stay in sight."

With that he started to make his way around the place, never passing a corner, but aiming his gun everywhere, checking the shadows.

Peter glanced around too, at the deserted and forgotten place, a place that harbored death literally everywhere. And he´d seen them all. He sighed.

"Feels strange to be back here, doesn´t it?" he spoke, knowing that his brother was probably feeling the same way.

"I guess it has been longer for you than it is for me." Nathan said. "Feels like I was here only a week ago." He regarded the place, sadly. "I guess I was. And now I skipped almost five years. How am I supposed to ever catch up with that loss?"

"You will." Peter assured him. "I´ll help you. We´ll all help you. What matters is that you´re back. The rest will come in time."

A few feet aside, Lassiter was trying not to spy on that private talk between the two brothers but that was not very easy, considering that they were merely a few feet apart. So he at least tried to isolate himself visually by facing the ground, taking deep and slow breaths. Slowly his stomach steadied itself.

And then he spotted something. Traces. But not the kind that were common for a place like this, miles away from civilization and only visited by animals. Not by a long shot. He went down to his knees to have a better look at it.

"You found something, detective?" Nathan asked.

"Traces." Lassiter spoke, turning around to see Noah stepping closer. "Of a car."

"Someone was here." the Company man understood.

"And not too long ago. Barely an hour I´d say."

Nathan frowned, surprised. "You´re a tracker or something like that?"

"I know how to interpret a trace." Lassiter told him. "And this car isn´t gone for too long. Someone was here lately."

"We should go, check out Alice´s bunker." Bennet suggested at once. "Make sure, she´s okay. And let´s hope, we´re not too late already."

He met Peter´s gaze, just for a second and turned around to lead the way.

**...**

"Let me ask you something, Peter." Nathan spoke, a few minutes into the walk. "You keep talking about how Sylar has changed, over these last few years."

"He has." Peter replied, looking over the wide plain of the Arizona desert.

"But how?" Nathan persisted. "How did he change? You really want to tell me that he´s not a killer anymore?"

Peter only looked at him, not saying anything. And Nathan laughed.

"You must be kidding me. And you believe that? You of all people?"

"I asked him the same question, many times." Bennet mentioned, over his shoulder.

"How can you even buy that lie?" Nathan was still laughing.

"Because it´s not a lie, Nathan." Peter retorted, totally serious. "I was there when he changed. I was in his mind. For six years. Maybe you can spend years with only one person as company, without getting to know him. But I can´t. I know him, because I saw it happen right before my eyes. For years."

The gaze Nathan gave him was not encouraging. But that kind of refusal to understand was something Peter knew intimately from his older brother. Unfortunately, from years of experience. If Nathan refused to understand, no one would change that, especially not his little brother. Peter gave it up, throwing up his hands.

"You know what." he cried, exasperated. "Forget it. I´m sick of having to explain this over and over again. I know by now that no one ever gets it. Not Mom, not Claire, and you won´t be the exception. Why should you? He killed you."

"Exactly."

Peter nodded. Of course Nathan would agree, now.

"But to answer your question …" he went on, ignoring the well known sarcasm. "Yes. I do believe him. And not even you can change that. And you know why? Because I forgave him his deeds, a long time ago. And I made my peace with it. Somehow I managed it to get past my hate … and to forgive." he looked into his brother´s face, that mask of stubborn indifference, and chuckled, dryly. "That´s actually a pretty good feeling." he told him and not just him. "Maybe you should try it one day."

Noah threw him a glance, over his shoulder, knowing very well, that this comment had been directed at him and Carlton.

"And why did you never mention that before now?" Nathan demanded to know. "You had two whole weeks to break that news to me."

For the time of a heartbeat, Peter didn´t know what to say. Was that question for real?

"To break that news to you? Nathan, you were dead. I just got you back. Can you at least try to imagine that I had other things on my mind than to talk about Sylar?"

"The man who killed me?"

"Wow, guys." Lassiter cried out, suddenly, before Peter could give a response.

The detective was staring ahead, eyes wide, his finger pointing at a cone of smoke that was rising in the distance, against the sinking sun.

Peter exchanged a glance with his brother. And then they just ran.

It was a burning car, they found, next to a ravine with a steep slope. The earth was disturbed around the edge, but other than that burned out car, nothing else seemed to be around. No one to aim their guns at.

Lassiter checked the car, to make sure no one was inside. No one was.

"What the hell happened here?" the detective asked aloud.

Bennet knew the answer. "Sylar."

"We can´t know that." Peter blurred, not ready to simply jump to conclusions.

"What do you _think_ happened here, Pete?" Nathan retorted, speaking down to him, just like he used to do it, when they were still kids.

"We need to get to that bunker." Bennet decided, urgently. "If Alice is even still alive."

Lassiter and Nathan agreed and started to move. Only Peter didn´t. His feet were fast in the ground, not moving away, his eyes were fixed in the distance, at the mountains that rose at the horizon. And the storm that was forming over it.

„I think, I know where she is."

The others followed his gaze and saw it too. The storm was over the first crest of the mountains, whirling up sand, spinning it, until it started to look more and more like a huge tornado. And then there was an explosion, halfway up the side of the mountain, too far away for them to hear but the fire was bright enough for them to see it, in that wall of black swirling dirt. Especially since it caused an avalanche to come down.

Peter stepped forward, shocked.

"We need to get there."

And before anyone could say anything in response, he´d closed his eyes and was gone.

"Peter, no." Nathan cried but too late. After a grumbled curse under his breath he took off the ground and headed for the mountains, to where his stupid little brother had just jumped.

"Hey." Lassiter shouted, surprised. "Heeeeeeyy! DAMMIT!"

"Come on." Bennet nudged him, and started to run. Lassiter stared after him in disbelieve.

"Are you kidding?" he cried. But in the end he had no choice but to follow.

**...**

He reached the bottom of the mountain, only a second after he´d left the others behind, a few miles away, and immediately he got lifted off his feet by the force of the wind, strong and unexpected. He reached out his hands, trying to grab something, anything in reaching distance, but his body was swirling and so did his surroundings, until he didn´t see anything but a blur of dirt and schemes.

And then he hit the ground, sliding across sand and stones until he finally got to grab something. A rock, one that really held him. The wind kept tossing around him, but it seemed to have moved on, as if there were more important targets around than him. Peter panted, and dared to look upwards. He saw a figure, flying through the air, passing him above. Nathan?

He tried to stand up but as he tried to, the wind increased again. Coincidence, he was sure of it, but it could have been a sign that something – Alice – didn´t want him to get up. That she wanted him to stay out of her business, whatever it might be. But of course that wasn´t the reason. The reason was something else, and he had to find out what it was.

So he leaned forward, trying to outweight the force of the wind with his body. Only that he´d underestimated the storm and once again his feet lost contact to the ground. Again he flew, but this time he collided with something in midair. Not a rock, a body, and together they hit the ground again, grunting about the impact.

Peter knew, within a heartbeat, that the body he´d crashed into, was his brother and this time he knew it without a doubt.

He didn´t know how long they were lying there like this, just clinging to the rocks, trying to stay on the ground but eventually the storm subsided, and let go of them. When Peter looked up, he could see that it hadn´t subsided, but merely changed direction. A big cone of swirling dust was wandering over the plain, heading south, away from them. As if Alice was done here and moved on to the next place to devastate it.

Peter exhaled, his whole body shaking. Next to him, Nathan grunted, and Peter jumped up, scared.

"Nathan! Nathan, are you okay?"

He rolled his brother around and Nathan groaned, facing the sky above.

"I hope you´ve got the plate of that bus." he groaned and when Peter chuckled, relieved, he frowned at him. "What the hell were you thinking?" he demanded to know. Peter shook his head. "I had to help."

"Who?"

"I …"

"It was stupid."

The younger man was simply flabbergasted. "And you?" he retorted. "You came here too."

"I really had to help someone." Nathan replied. "A little brother that doesn´t know how to keep his head out of trouble."

"Says the right one. You were the one who almost got his head cut off."

The gaze he got in response, made him realize what he´d just said and a strange silence evolved between them.

"Come on." Peter broke the pause eventually and held out a hand, to help his brother up. "There must be a reason why she went all out around here." he mentioned.

The two of them glanced around, inspecting the area. The lose rocks, of the avalanche they´d seen, were lying in a big heap before them. But other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Until they heard a sound from above. Chugging.

"Do you hear that?" Peter tried to spot the source of the sound.

"Sounds like a car." Nathan searched the side of the hill.

There was a path running alongside it, now trashed by whatever had exploded up there. Nathan threw a glance at Peter, and lifted off the ground, flying up to where that motor was still purring quietly. As if a car was parked there, with the motor running.

He reached the level of the path.

"Pete." he cried out, alarmed, and landed, out of Peter´s sight.

The younger brother didn´t waste any more time, and closed his eyes, teleporting himself up, to where Nathan had landed, to what he´d found there. When he opened his eyes again, he saw him, kneeling next to someone on the ground. A car, a Nissan X-Trail, was standing there, pressed against the side of the mountain, probably by the wind, motor still running. The driver was lying on the ground, unconscious.

"It´s your friend." Nathan cried. "What´s his name?"

Peter stepped closer, to see the face of the unconscious man. When he saw him, his eyes went wide.

"Shawn!"


	3. How I ended up on a Road in the Desert

**How I ended up on a road in the desert – part one**

"He´s alive." Peter found, after examining Shawn. "But he hit his head pretty bad." He turned around, to look at his brother. "See if there´s a first aid kit in the car."

Nathan got up, turning to search the car, while Peter tried to estimate how bad the wound on Shawn´s head really was. There was a trail of blood running down his forehead and that could mean either some severe damage or just a simple cut. Without better equipment he wouldn´t be able to tell. But he could bandage him, at least that much.

When Nathan came back with the first aid kit, Peter wrapped the fake psychic´s head in neat and stable cotton, just fast enough to make the bleeding stop. He was just done with it, when Shawn started to stir.

"Dude." he slurred, only half awake. "What happened?"

"Stay calm." Peter told him, bedding Shawn´s head under his balled jacket, to make him comfortable.

Shawn forced his eyes open, something that seemed to take a lot of willpower, trying to see where he was.

"Pete." Nathan tipped Peter´s shoulder and gestured ahead, over the plain of the desert. When Peter followed his finger, he saw two figures, walking there, approaching them slowly.

"Aw, damn." he cursed, getting up. He´d totally forgotten about Noah and Lassiter. He´d have a lot of explaining to do, why he´d left them behind to walk the whole way. That wouldn´t be too great. Hell, no.

"I´ll get them." he said and before he could reconsider it, teleported away, down to the plain, to meet them.

The two men were sweaty, dirt clinging to their skin, where the wind had blown it into their faces. And they were panting. Lassiter´s scowl when he saw Peter appear in front of him, was murderous.

"You." he breathed, snarling. "If you ever do that again. I swear to you, I´ll …"

"We found Shawn." Peter blurred, effectively cutting the threat off in mid sentence.

Lassiter stared at him, flabbergasted. "What?"

"On the mountain." Peter nodded, stepping closer. "Come on."

He lay a hand on each of their arms and took them with him, right back to where Nathan waited with Shawn. Only a second after their jump, there was a gagging noise, coming from Lassiter, and before Peter even knew what was happening, the detective had turned around and doubled over, to throw up behind a rock.

Bennet made a face of disgust and stepped back, facing the other way.

"Lassie?" Shawn asked, looking bewildered at the scene. "What´s the matter with him?"

"Travel sickness." Peter explained and tried not to look at the vomiting detective again.

Eventually the dry heaving sounds subsided and Lassiter straightened, taking some labored breaths. He searched in his pocket for a kleenex, to wipe his mouth with it. Eventually he returned to the group, his face pale but his scowl as fierce as always.

"Spencer." he growled. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Bleeding." was the whining answer. Shawn tried to sit up, but a sudden pain in his head made him stop, closing his eyes. Not a good sign, Peter figured.

"Just take your time." he advised him. "It might be only a headache, no concussion. But you have to keep it slow."

"Got it." Shawn answered, eyes still closed.

Peter met the detective´s eyes, briefly. The anger in his face was gone, replaced by genuine concern.

"What happened?" Lassiter asked, and Shawn opened his eyes.

**...**

Back in the hotel – a few hours earlier:

The credits were rolling, over the black screen, some of the best songs ever written was playing to it after the movie was over and Shawn stood up, finally, to follow the call of nature. Man that had been something. By now he was sure he needed a screen like that for his office. It was just unthinkable to watch Transformers on any other screen ever again. It just wouldn´t be the same. It would be like being deaf and blind again after you´d seen the sun.

While he took a leak in the bathroom, Jules and Gus put in the third movie, chatting all the way, about how mind blowing that one must be after the second one had already beat every score they´d known so far. Not even the wide screen in a cinema could compete with that. And, man, weren´t they right? Of course they were.

Shawn hurried to wash his hands, to go back and join them again. When he left the bathroom though, something caught his attention, from outside in the hallway. Familiar voices.

"_Crap."_ Lassie grumbled, just as Shawn passed the door, and alone that made the fake psychic halt and listen, smirking in anticipation.

"_Easy, Carlton."_ Bennet´s voice came next. _"Everything is going fine."_

_"I still don´t get why we ask for his permission." _Lassiter kept grumbling. _"If we want to talk to the girl, we talk to the girl. He´s not her father. He has no right to deny us …"_

_"Sometimes it´s good to have certain people on your side, Carlton."_ Bennet interrupted, gently but firmly._ "And if we take Suresh with us when we hunt down Sylar, I´d rather have him on our side. One hundred per cent. Now he _is_ a hundred percent on our side, because he believes that we´re on his side. That´s the way it works with people Carlton. One of us, one of them."_

Shawn was frowning, deeply. What the hell had he just stumbled upon?

"_Are we on his side?" _he heard Lassiter ask and he could almost see the other man shrug in response, before he gave his answer.

_"As long as he´s on our side, we are."_

The faint chuckle coming from Lassiter was almost too quiet to hear. Almost.

"_Now come on." _Bennet said. _"Give him a night to think about it."_

"_This is a whole night, we´re losing."_ Lassiter complained, his voice following Bennet´s footsteps.

"_We´ve been waiting for this investigation to get finished for almost two weeks."_ the company man replied. _"One night won´t make a big difference."_

"_I´ll remind you of this, if Sylar kills someone tonight."_ Lassiter shot back, making Bennet sigh.

"_You do that."_ he said, and that was the last thing, Shawn heard from them. That and the doors that got closed behind them.

For a moment, the fake psychic was indecisive. What was he supposed to do with this?

"Shawn, are you coming?" Gus asked, from the sitting room, the sounds of the movie already loud and clear. But somehow it wasn´t that tempting anymore, as it had been before.

"Right there." Shawn called, still thinking, at least trying to.

But to think he needed to know what the whole thing had been about. And he wouldn´t find that out by standing here, musing, while Transformers was running only a few steps away.

So he decided quickly. While Gus and Jules were awing about the opening sequence, he opened the door and quietly slipped out of the suite, sneaking down the hallway, to Suresh´s room. He didn´t knock, but tried the door right away, opening it just a bit, to peek in.

"Shawn." the scientist cried, swirling around as if caught in the act by doing something illegal.

"Hi." Shawn greeted, still hidden behind the door. "Ehm. Can I come in for a sec?"

Mohinder gulped, uncomfortable, but turned to him, all the way. "Sure."

Shawn stepped in, carefully, closing the door behind himself.

"So …" he started. "You had a chat with Lassie and HRG?"

Mohinder halted, frowning confused. "Who?"

Shawn shook his head, just as confused. "Bennet." he explained, as if this was common knowledge.

Mohinder only cocked his head, uncertain. "HRG?"

"B … Because of his glasses." Shawn was really not sure if the other one was trying to kid him, or if he really didn´t get it. "You know? Horn rimmed?" When he didn´t get another reaction than an uncertain glance, he gave it up. "Why does no one ever get my humor?" he wondered.

"What can I do for you, Shawn?" the geneticist asked, skipping that weird part.

"I was just thinking." Shawn started over. "You know, Sylar left before he even had a chance to get to the President. I mean we all thought he would try to kill the guy, to take over." He halted, chuckling to himself. "Okay almost all of us. My point is. Well … he didn´t. Instead … he left."

"You can stop right there." Mohinder said, shaking his head. "I know where you´re getting. We´ve been over this before."

"I just don´t get how you can still doubt his intentions." Shawn cried, not intending to stop right there.

"Because he´s a killer, Shawn." Mohinder burst out. "That´s what he always was and it´s not in his power to change that. Ever. He admitted it himself. More than once. And if you wouldn´t be so blinded by how cool his powers are, you would see that too."

"I´m not blinded by the total awesomeness of his powers." Shawn objected. "I just …"

Mohinder only looked at him. He didn´t need to say anything else.

"Okay." Shawn said. "That didn´t come out right. I am not blinded." he emphasized. "But I know when people are honest with me. And Sylar was honest, when he said he wanted to help. Dude, you should have seen him, before we set off to Washington. I had to convince him to even go. If it would have been his decision, we would have stayed where we were."

Finally Mohinder´s frown was that of a man, who´d started to think again. He lowered his eyes, for a moment. But eventually he shook his head.

"It doesn´t matter whose idea it was." he said. "As soon as he had the opportunity, he was overpowered by his hunger again. His hunger for power."

Shawn lay his head askew. "That´s not true and you know it. If he´d been overpowered, he wouldn´t have left."

"What do you want me to do, Shawn?" the scientist demanded to know, tired of this game.

"Don´t help Bennet to kill him." the fake psychic spoke, without hesitation.

"But?"

"Help me, help him."

"Help him."

"Yes. We set off first, before they even notice. Molly can tell us where he is and we could …"

"I didn´t agree to let Bennet and Lassiter talk to Molly yet." Mohinder talked over him. "And I´m not sure if I will."

Shawn was caught off guard by that. "I … thought you …"

"You were wrong. The longer I can keep from her that Sylar´s on the loose again, the better for her peace of mind."

"Then … How do you want to find him?"

Mohinder sighed. "I don´t know."

"Dude."

"I´m sorry, Shawn. But we´re not going to go on a secret mission to save Sylar from himself. Not today and not anytime soon." He sighed again, exhausted, and sat down on the edge of his bed. "I´m sorry." he repeated. "Just … go back to your room. Keep enjoying your stay here."

Shawn stared down at this man before him, totally thrown off by that unexpected change. The exhaustion in Mohinder´s eyes was real, no trick to get rid of him, or anything the like. He simply didn´t want to talk about it anymore. And could Shawn blame him? They´d been over it a hundred times, again and again, and neither of them had managed it to convince to other one from his point of view. So why, why should this change just now?

Eventually Shawn turned around without another word, and left the room again. It was the weirdest thing, to feel so defeated, even though they hadn´t even fought. But he guessed that on a certain point a fight wasn´t even necessary any longer.

He closed the door and started to head back down the hall, back to his own suite, where Jules and Gus would be wondering already, where he stayed that long. And then he heard a phone ringing. Back there, in Mohinder´s room. He halted, listened. Why? He didn´t know. But he knew it was important. And then he heard Mohinder answering the call, and he knew why.

_"Hello."_ he said and then he gasped, in shock. _"Sylar."_

Shawn was back at the door at once, pressing his ear to the wood.

_"Where are you?" _he heard the scientist ask and then listen to the answer._ "The Secret Service is still looking for you." _he told him. Listened again. Then:_ "What was I supposed to do? You hardly could have expected me to do anything differently." _Again he listened to what the other man had to say, sighing._ "Tell me where you are." _he demanded, exhausted and then Shawn heard him, actually heard him shake his head._ "I can´t believe that and you know that."_ A brief moment of quiet, and then Mohinder cried out, alarmed:_ "No, wait. Sylar? Sylar!"_

The next thing Shawn heard was a frustrated sigh and the sound of the phone being put back on the nightstand. Sylar´d hung up.

Shawn opened the door and stepped in, just as Mohinder was wiping a hand over his face. When he noticed Shawn standing behind him, he flinched, but not half as hard as he´d flinched before.

"What did he say?" Shawn asked, not even trying to pretend he hadn´t listened.

"Nothing." Mohinder closed his eyes, running his fingers over his lids. "He apologized, that´s all. I´m not sure if I can believe him."

"But I am. We need to find him, before Bennet and Lassie do."

Mohinder shook his head, weakly. "I don´t think that he´s in Washington anymore."

"Then … we track him down."

"I´m still not asking Molly to …"

"You don´t need to."

Mohinder stared at him, startled. "Then how do you want to track him? He called from a phone booth."

"So?" Shawn shrugged. "That phone booth is somewhere. At least a start."

"And how do we track this? You want to ask the FBI?"

"No."

"Then how …?"

"I have a plan." Shawn assured him, confidently. "But I want something in return."

Mohinder stood up, facing him at eye level. "Are you bargaining with me now?"

"You want to find him or not?" Shawn countered, equally. "You still don´t know what he´ll do, do you? You want to find him, in case he´ll kill someone. I want to find him, before Bennet and Lassie do."

"Then I don´t think you´ll let this opportunity pass, even if I would refuse to agree to your demands." Mohinder crossed his arms.

"Right." Shawn mirrored his gesture. "I wouldn´t. But I wouldn´t have to do it with you. I could do it on my own. Or with Gus. I could leave you out of it, in the dark if you like. But I don´t. I offer you to come along. To help."

The hard gaze of the scientist flickered, uncertain. Shawn did his best to keep up his straight gaze. His poker face.

"It´s your decision." he shrugged and turned around, as if to leave the room.

Mohinder let his shoulders hang, facing the ground, annoyed. "Wait." he called him back, causing Shawn to smile triumphantly. "You really have a way to track his call?" the doctor wanted to know.

"Sure."

"Then do it."

"We have a deal? You come with me and leave Lassie and HRG out of it? You´ll help me, to help Sylar?"

Mohinder stared at him, gritting his teeth. "I´ll come with you to find Sylar." he spoke, and Shawn cheered.

"Great."

He took the cell phone from Mohinder´s nightstand, looking at the display, going through the list of numbers.

"Now how do you want to trace him?" Mohinder demanded to know. "I thought you have no clue about high tech?"

"I don´t." Shawn affirmed, shamelessly. "But I know someone who has." He´d found the number, he´d been looking for and dialed it. Mohinder watched him, not sure what to expect.

"Hey, dude." Shawn cried when his call was answered. "It´s Shawn, remember me?" He chuckled. "Yeah, right. … Listen, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I kinda got a call and I need to know where the call came from. … Yes. … Sylar. … Exactly."

"Who are you talking to?" Mohinder whispered at him.

"Micah Sanders." Shawn whispered back and immediately listened again. "Yeah, I´m still there. … Mohinder." He faced the scientist again, and smiled. "He greets you."

Mohinder gave a strange smile at the delivered message. Shawn nodded at what the kid had said.

"We want to go to him, to help him." he affirmed. "Yes. … Oh, that´s no problem, dude. The call came to the cell I use right now." He frowned, unsure. "Okay?"

He waited, listening to some very weird sounds that were suddenly in his ear, coming from somewhere within the cell. He frowned, trying to understand what was going on in there, and then he had Micah Sander´s voice in his ear again.

"Yep." he answered, quickly, and listened to the boy´s report. "Great." he cheered. "Where …? Huh? _Where?_" He frowned, thoughtfully. "Okay? Thanks, Micah. … I will. Bye. Thanks again."

"Where is he?" Mohinder wanted to know.

Shawn was still frowning deeply. "He says the booth´s in Arizona." he revealed and the shocked expression of the scientist was something he hadn´t expected, at all.

"Alice." Mohinder breathed.

"Who?"

"Alice Shaw. She´s Peter´s and Nathan´s aunt. She has a very powerful ability." Mohinder shook his head. "Sylar is after her." he decided and turned around, hurrying to the bureau. "We need to stop him."

"Hey." Shawn cried, while Mohinder rummaged inside the drawer for something. "Did you even listen to any of what I said earlier? Sylar is not the enemy. He´s the one we´re about to save. He´s Private Ryan."

"This is no movie, Shawn." Mohinder turned back to him, fiercely.

"I know." Shawn assured him. "It´s totally serious."

"Then you should be able to understand that this is no game either." Mohinder put something in his pocket, his eyes never leaving Shawn´s. "And that Sylar could kill you if you meet him."

"He wouldn´t hurt me."

"How can you be so blind?" the geneticist burst out. "Stop idealizing him and start seeing him for what he really is. He´s a murderer. A monster. You were there too. He killed Nathan and impersonated him to be President. He betrayed us all to have power over us. Because this is how Sylar really is, if he has the chance. And this is the man we brought back with us, Shawn, to our time and our reality."

"I´m not the one that lived in this other reality." Shawn replied, astoundingly calm. "At least not completely. And neither are you. We both got over those personalities of ours. At least partly. Why do you think, Sylar didn´t?"

"Because Sylar is different." Mohinder clarified. "He has a monster inside of him and when this monster wants to break loose, he´s just powerless against its force. I know. I had it inside of me too. I still have it and so do you. We all have such a monster in us. Only that Sylar´s monster is so much stronger and the man just can´t control it. Not alone."

Shawn didn´t say anything in response anymore. He didn´t need to. The doctor had outsmarted his own arguments with that speech. The missing response made that very clear to him.

Shawn nodded, subtly, understandingly. "Then maybe we should find him to save him from himself." he suggested, once again. "Sounds like a plan?"

He could see, that Mohinder still didn´t like the idea, but at least he didn´t argue anymore. He simply nodded, in silence.

"Okay. Then we need to figure out a way to get to Arizona."

"I know a way." Mohinder told him, and without waiting for a response, left the room.

"Wait." Shawn hurried after him, grabbing his shoulder. "We had a deal."

Mohinder shook his hand off. "I´m not heading for Bennet." he hissed and knocked on the door he´d stopped at. Hiro´s door.

Inside they could hear the young time traveler talk in Japanese, very fast, probably to someone on the phone. When Mohinder knocked he stopped in midsentence and then shot out a few more words, before answering the door, the phone still in his hand.

"Dr. Suresh. Shawn." he cried, smiling widely and immediately blurred more Japanese into the phone. He held the receiver out for them. "You want to say hello to Ando and my sister?" he offered. "They´re in Tokyo."

Shawn was about to take the phone, when Mohinder pushed past him into the room.

"Not now, Hiro." he said, urging inside. "We need your help."

"Oh." Hiro made and quickly finished his call, hanging up, rather seriously. "What is it?"

"We know where Sylar is." Mohinder revealed right away. "And we need to get there."

"To help him." Shawn hurried to clarify.

"To stop him." Mohinder clarified of his own.

"To help him, stop himself." Shawn threw him a glance.

"Before he kills someone, with a great power." Mohinder answered the glance.

"Because he´s alone and alone he´s weak." Shawn threw up his finger, when Mohinder opened his mouth. "That´s what you said." he stopped him before he could argue.

"I know what I said."

"Then don´t argue now."

"I don´t argue. I´m just stating facts."

"So do I."

"Would you two mind, speaking English again?" Hiro asked, rather helpless, making them both turn to him, baffled. "Please?"

"It´s not hard to understand, dude." Shawn cried. "Sylar is in Arizona. Alone. And we need to get there to help him. To save him from himself."

Now finally Hiro seemed to have understood. It had to be like that, Shawn figured. Why else would he smile that happily?

"Hay." the young Japanese cried, nodding quickly. "Save Sylar, save the world."

"Huh?"

"What?"

Hiro grabbed each of the two confused men at their arms and squinted.

Before the room and everything around him, disappeared, Shawn saw the door getting opened again and Gus who peeked in, startled, his eyes wide.

"Shawn!"


	4. A quick Trip to the Desert

**A quick trip to the desert**

The sudden heat was overwhelming. Just a second ago, they´d been in a well air conditioned but still somehow chilly, hotel room in Washington, and the next moment, bang. Desert heat. Burning sun. Dust swirled up from the ground at a small breeze that was as hot as the rest of the air, not providing any kind of improvement.

Shawn coughed, not because of the dust, but because of the heat that suddenly invaded his throat. Damn it felt like suffocating. But he was breathing. Incredible. He´d barely enough time to notice that they were in some allay, in a strange town, a phone booth standing in the corner. And then his cell phone started to ring.

Hiro and Mohinder watched him flinch, hurrying to answer the call.

"Yeah?"

"Shawn!" Gus´ voice cried into his ear, angry. "Where the hell are you?" he demanded to know. "What are you doing?"

"Ehm, dude." Shawn searched help at his companions, but they just didn´t give him anything he could work with. Nothing at all. "That´s really not the best time right now." he told Gus. "I´m on a secret mission, what means I really can´t tell you where I am and what I´m doing."

"Shawn!"

"Gotta go, dude. I promise I tell you everything as soon as I´m back."

He quickly closed his phone, ducking as if Gus could still reach out his arm and slap him over the head. After he was sure, that wouldn´t happen anymore, he wiped some invisible sweat off his forehead. Only to learn that it wasn´t invisible anymore. Damn, this place really was hot.

"We should search the immediate area." Mohinder suggested, glancing around. "Sylar could be still close."

"Good." Shawn nodded. "Good idea. Let´s split up. That way we can cover more ground."

"Good." Mohinder agreed. "Whoever finds him first, don´t approach him alone. Call the others first. We don´t know how he´ll react when he sees us here."

"You don´t still think he´d …"

"Just do it, Shawn." the scientist cried, fiercely, making him skip back.

"Okay." he pouted and Mohinder nodded, once. Case closed.

"Hurry. So far he doesn´t expect anyone to come after him. We might have a chance to catch him."

With that he was on his way. So was Hiro and Shawn was left behind to do his own search, somewhere in the nearer area. But what exactly did he expect to find here? Sylar? The dude was probably somewhere, where they´d never guess him to be. At a place that would be so random, he´d never think of it. Like a corner booth.

Shawn turned around, to see if there was a diner nearby, and didn´t find any. Only apartment buildings that were typical for small towns, maybe some small shops in the ground floors. He made out a barbershop but that was all for public places he could spot. Only a few people were around, strolling along the streets. Neither of them seemed to be in a hurry.

Shawn´s cell phone started to ring again. He exhaled, and answered it.

"Gus, I already told you, I can´t talk right n …"

"Shawn, it´s me." Juliet´s harsh voice cut him off, making him feel very cold all the sudden. "What are you doing again?" she demanded to know. "Please, tell me you´re not running into a catastrophe again."

"Of course not." he claimed, starting to walk as if he could outrun her with that. "Why would you think that?"

"You will tell me where you are, right now." she demanded. "We´ll come and save you from whatever you´re getting yourself into."

"I´m not getting myself into trouble, Jules. Why don´t you just trust me?"

"Shawn." she replied, dryly. "Where are you?"

"Don´t you worry about me, I´m perfectly fine." he assured her, rounding a corner. "Everything´s just … Holy crap!" Facing what he´d found behind the corner, he decided on the spur of the moment: "I need to go, Jules. See ya soon."

"Shawn, what …?" but that was all he heard, before he hung up on her.

**...**

Mohinder had finished his round, without finding anything. He made his way back to where they´d started, hoping that Shawn or Hiro had had more luck. But finding the way back turned out more tricky than expected. This town seemed to have a lot of side allays, and each of them looked the same. A perfect town for a killer like Sylar, who liked to lurk in the shadows. Mohinder still expected him to stand before him, at each corner he passed.

But he didn´t meet Sylar. Instead he spotted Shawn, crouching before something, at the other end of the allay. Mohinder made his way over to him.

"I didn´t see anything on that side." he told Shawn. "Did you find anything here?"

The fake psychic turned around to him, and Mohinder saw what he´d been looking at.

"You could call it that." Shawn said, and got up, from the dead body he´d found. He immediately held out his hands for Mohinder, to calm him down.

"Okay." he spoke, emphasizing. "I know that doesn´t look too good, but only because there´s a dead body lying in an allay, doesn´t mean it was Sylar who killed the guy." He halted for a second. "I probably sound like Lassie saying that. But this is only circumstantial evidence. It´s no real proof."

Mohinder could only stare at the dead body on the ground. A boy of about maybe seventeen years, neck slashed, blood all over his shirt, eyes still open, his face a mask of pain.

Slashed neck, the scientist mused. Not his throat, his neck. As if it happened in a fight. Not quiet Sylar´s usual style but … He shook his head.

"We still need to find Sylar."

"Agree about that." Shawn nodded and looked around, searching. "Where´s Hiro?"

Mohinder remembered the third member of their team and took out his cell phone, dialing Hiro´s number. The phone was busy.

"Who the hell is he calling?" Shawn cried but already had a possible explanation. "Maybe he found Sylar and tries to call you."

Mohinder pressed the red phone, to clear the line, for Hiro to call. But it didn´t ring. Shawn shrugged.

"Or maybe not."

"Does your phone work?"

"Yes."

"Then that´s not it." The scientist shook his head, frustrated. "We need to find him. He might need help."

"Check."

**...**

They were searching for maybe twenty minutes, with no result at all. Hiro seemed to be gone, vanished into thin air. And considering the man´s ability, that was not even that unlikely. Still. He must have had a very good reason for just leaping off without them. Or without telling them.

"Let´s try to call him again." Shawn suggested.

Right in this moment a shot rang out and made them both flinch. Or so they thought. The first sound was soon followed by a much louder shot, coming from a car on the other side of the street. The driver hit the steering wheel, cursing frustrated about his old crappy car and the exhaustion pipe answered with another back shot.

Shawn and Mohinder exhaled, relieved, inwardly rolling their eyes at their own jumpiness.

"Maybe we should think about a vacation." Shawn suggested and Mohinder nodded.

He finally got around to dial Hiro´s number, but the result of this times try was even less encouraging than last time. Because this time he didn´t even get a connection. Only the message that the phone they tried to reach, was out of order.

"Maybe he´s out of reach." he mused.

A moment later, there was a sudden pain on his earlobe, and Mohinder flinched, skipping back from Shawn´s hand.

"Ow! What are you doing?"

"I didn´t say anything about alien abductions." Shawn told him, accusingly and confused him even more.

"I meant that he might have teleported into the desert." Mohinder clarified his earlier assumption and Shawn cocked his head, startled.

"Oh."

Mohinder sighed, exasperated and shook his head, dismissing the episode.

"We need to get to Coyote Sands." he decided, looking down on the phone in his hand. The one that was of no use for him anymore. "Sylar might be there."

"What´s Coyote Sands?" Shawn asked.

"A place out in the desert. Alice Shaw lives there. The way things look, Hiro´s there now."

"We don´t know that."

"There´s a way to find out. It´s the place Sylar would seek out. And it´s the place we´ll go to now."

"How do we get into the desert?"

Mohinder looked over the street and Shawn followed his gaze, to a car rental service that offered cheap rentals of good quality. And despite of the crappy look of the town they were in, the cars they offered, actually did look good.

Shawn followed Mohinder over the street, to the parking lot. A breeze blew a cloud of thin dust into his face and he coughed. The sweat on his face was already feeling dirty. Goddamn he felt homesick for Santa Barbara. It was warm there but not that warm.

He stopped at the gate, for a second, to take off his jacket. It helped. A little. Then why did he have the feeling that it would be the same only a few minutes from now? He didn´t need to be a psychic to know that such a heat was not defeated by taking off clothes. But he didn´t need to suffocate in a second sphere of heat that surrounded his skin, after all.

He hung the jacket over the gate, trying to imagine a cool glass of ice water. Or a smoothy. Nice and sweet. Served with pieces of fresh and cool pineapple, coming right out of the refrigerator.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" he heard someone ask, and his eyes shot open. He realized that he´d been close to fall asleep standing and hurried to make his feet move, getting to Mohinder's side.

"Yes." the doctor just told the salesman. "We´d like to rent a car."

**...**

The desert was dry and barren and as hot as a melting pot. The air was shimmering at the horizon, creating puddles of water that weren´t there. Shawn saw all this but, thanks god, he didn´t need to stand this heat. All thanks to modern technology and air conditioning, which he enjoyed ever since they´d entered this car. A Nissan X-Trail, perfect for a trip that just inevitably had to go offroad, considering their target.

The cool air inside this very comfortable vehicle was a balsam for Shawn´s mood, and for his mind. He finally could think clear again, and about other things than to get a cool drink. More important things, like their target, for example.

"Quick question, Doc." he addressed his driver.

"Yeah?" Mohinder threw him a brief glance.

"Just in case we really find Sylar, there at …"

"Coyote Sands." Mohinder repeated the name for him and Shawn frowned, thinking.

"What a weird name for a place like this." he mentioned. "What did you say again, what it was?"

"An old camp, where the government rounded up people with abilities." the geneticist told him. "1960. To isolate and study them. And eventually murder."

Shawn raised both brows. "Are you kidding?"

"I´m sure it wasn´t planned like that." Mohinder said, shaking his head. "My father was capable of many things, but organized murder was certainly not on his list."

"Your dad?"

"Yeah. He was here. Doing research on them. He never told me about it. I had to learn the impact of his work here, first hand."

Shawn tried to imagine what the doctor was talking about, and failed. "What happened?" he asked.

Mohinder shrugged. "I met Alice." he told him. "And she … freaked out on me. She saw my father in me. Says more than words what he did back in the days. A scared little girl, that ran into the desert … alone … terrified. She never came back. Still lives out there, far from any living thing. Keeping the world save from the wrath that she´s capable of."

When the scientist noticed Shawn´s stunned gaze, he frowned, startled. "What?"

But all Shawn could do was stare, in disbelieve. "Wow." he exhaled. "Dude, you so should read audio books. Honestly. You have a way to tell creepy stories."

The scientist smirked. "Didn´t you want to know something else?" he asked him.

"I did?" Shawn tried to remember. "Oh, yeah. What do we do in case we really find Sylar there at …"

"Coyote Sands."

The psychic frowned. "Weird name, isn´t it?"

"Shawn."

"Right. Sorry. So what do we do in case we find Sylar at …"

"That depends on what he´s doing when we find him." Mohinder talked over him, to stop this spiral of endless repetition. "If he´s in the process of killing Alice, we´ll have to stop him somehow." he said. "If he already did kill her …"

"Dude, your assumptions of what he´s doing, are slightly one sided, don´t you think?"

"I just assume and prepare for the worst case scenario."

"That might be the reason why you were always so grumpy while we worked on finding all those specials." Shawn mused.

Mohinder glanced at him. "I thought you consider that alternate life as not existing."

"Almost not existing." Shawn corrected. "Tell me how I´m supposed to forget something like that, with an eidetic memory like mine?"

The only answer he got to that question, was a shrug.

"The only difference is, I took a decision." he went on. "To see _this_ version of my life as the real one, the one that really was supposed to happen and as the one that I want to be. That I want to remember."

Finally his words seemed to have hit a mark. The scientist frowned, thinking.

"How?" he asked. "How can you just see it that way?"

Shawn shrugged, unsure about the answer. "I just do. It´s a decision. An intensely personal decision."

Mohinder didn´t respond anymore. He just looked ahead, a contemplative frown on his forehead.

They drove for ten more minutes, and then Shawn saw houses in the distance. When they approached them, he realized that it were no houses, but barracks. Old, rotten and half decayed barracks. It looked like an old war prisoners camp, left behind to be forgotten after the war was over.

The car stopped and for a moment, neither of them made a move to leave the car. Mohinder was clinging to the wheel, his eyes fixed on the outside, his lips a thin line. He didn´t seem to notice Shawn´s watching gaze. And then he just got out, determined to keep going.

Shawn followed him, out of the air conditioned car, to have a look around this place, that looked and felt as if they´d entered a part of hell. Damn, if there was anything alive out here it was nothing bigger than a cockroach. Only in a place like this it would rather be scorpions, snakes or spiders, Shawn figured.

"Okay." he spoke, to break the brooding silence. "That was a dead end. Literally. What do we do now?" He met Mohinder´s gaze. "I mean we both see that Sylar isn´t here."

Before the scientist could respond, they heard something and it made them both flinch, even though it was miles away from them. It was the sound of an explosion, coming somewhere from the east. Mohinder was back behind the wheel before Shawn even knew it had happened. He´d already started the motor when the fake psychic realized that he should better sit in the car with him, when he took off.

They didn´t need to search for the right direction. The smoke, rising in the distance, showed them exactly where to go.

"Dude." Shawn cried, when Mohinder raced over rocks and holes, making the car jump like a horse doing a high speed show jumping.

It was a ravine they were approaching, surrounded by high rocks and a few barren trees. Even from far away they could already see the car that was burning out there, sending thick black smoke into the air. Another car was hanging over the edge of the ravine. A red Dodge. Only it´s back bumper was still visible and the wheels that were spinning like crazy, trying to regain a grip. They didn´t make it. The wheels were hanging in the air.

Mohinder increased the speed to get there, to help. On one of the rocks surrounding the ravine, there was a figure, facing the hanging truck, one hand extended as if to reach out for it. Or push it.

"Sylar." Mohinder breathed and his foot pushed down the accelerator until it hit the bottom.

The X-Trail´s motor roared … and Sylar took off the ground, flying away, not even sparing a glance back at them.

Mohinder cursed and hit the brakes, just a moment before they reached the rock on which he´d been. Someone came running, around the corner. A boy of about sixteen or seventeen years, waving frantically for them to come and help.

"Heeeyyy!" he cried and stumbled over his own feet. "We need help! Please, we …"

The two men jumped out of the car.

"Shawn." Mohinder called.

"What?" the fake psychic cried, unsure what was expected from him.

But then he remembered the hanging Dodge and hurried over to it. The truck was hanging down the slope, stuck on a rock, the only reason why it hadn´t rolled down the pit for good. The driver was still inside, still trying to rear the Dodge back up.

"You need to get out, dude." Shawn yelled but the kid behind the wheel only shot him a raging gaze, before stubbornly returning to his tries to free the Dodge.

"Greg will never leave his car." the other boy told them, his voice shaking.

"That´s crazy." Mohinder said. "You need to get out, boy. Before the car slips down."

The boy turned to face them, but not to agree with them. Instead he informed them: "I have a hook. Help me pull it out."

"Is this guy for real?" Shawn asked but the constantly spinning wheels were more than enough answer.

At last Mohinder cursed and climbed down the slope, to the side of the Dodge. He stopped at the driver´s side, but before he could even open his mouth, the boy repeated, stubbornly: "I´m not leaving my car. The hook is under the front. Help me or leave me alone."

Mohinder decided to help. He slid down the rest of the way until he was at the hood of the truck. Reaching underneath it and getting the hook was the easier part of it. Climbing back up the slope and not losing it again, was the harder part. Shawn gave him a hand to pull him up the rest of the way, but it needed the enhanced strength of the scientist, to make the wire of the hook follow all the way to a tree, and to affix it there, making it stable enough to carry the weight of a Dodge Ram.

The motor was hauling and roaring like a monster. At last the truck finally made the turn, it´s back sliding down the slope while it´s hood came back up. Half of the ground, it had been standing on, seemed to roll down the slope in an avalanche of rocks and sand. But the wheels had found the grip again and after another moment, the truck rolled back up to saver ground.

Mohinder walked up to the driver´s side and opened the door.

"What kind of a stupid stunt was that?" he demanded to know. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I?" the boy shouted, jumping out. "It wasn´t as if I drove my truck over the edge by choice."

Mohinder looked into that young face and wasn´t able to give another sharp response. Shawn had a pretty good idea why.

"Are you the police?" the other boy asked, unexpectedly, his voice thin and unsure.

"Yes." Shawn answered at once, earning a disbelieving glance from the truck-driver.

"Then why don´t you wear badges?" he demanded to know. "Or uniforms."

"We´re off duty." Shawn told him, not a bit irritated. "What is not true because we´re always on duty. Even if we´re not on duty."

"What?" the boy´s expression was pure irritation.

Mohinder shook his head, dismissively. "What happened?" he asked the boys.

"That guy." Greg, the truck-driver cried, motioning to the top of the rock, where Sylar´d been. "He attacked us. Smashed Rickie´s car. He tried to kill us."

"Yeah, just the way he killed Mikey." Rickie added.

"Shut up, you …" his friend shouted at him, fiercely, and Rickie did shut up.

"You knew the boy who was killed in town?" Mohinder asked.

"He was our friend." Greg told him. "This asshole killed him and we´ll get him for it."

Mohinder shook his head. "I highly recommend for you not to. He´s very dangerous."

"So are we." Greg insisted, stubbornly.

Mohinder didn´t give a response. Instead he regarded the kid with great interest. An interest that went beyond sociological curiosity, Shawn figured. And he was right.

"Can I ask you a question?" Mohinder spoke. "Do you have an ability?"

Greg frowned, warily. "A what?"

"An over average skill, that enables you to do something no one else can do. Can I see your eyes for a second?" The boy cautiously allowed him to have a closer look. Mohinder nodded. "Hyper-sight." he diagnosed. "Am I right?"

"Who are you guys?" Rickie asked, highly irritated. "What kind of police, did you say are you?"

Shawn smiled in anticipation of all the possible answers he could give to that, but Mohinder was faster.

"We came here to find the man that attacked you." he explained, simple and plain. "He´s special, just like you. Only he´s much more powerful." He halted for a second. "What about your friend?" he then asked. "Had he an ability too?"

"Why do you ask?" Greg asked, suspiciously.

"That could be a reason why Sylar killed him." Mohinder explained.

The boy nodded. "Is that his name? Sylar?"

"No." Rickie answered the asked question, when Greg wouldn´t. "Mikey didn´t have … an …"

"What about you?" Mohinder kept asking and Rickie shrugged.

"I´m pretty good at letterbox baseball."

This time not only Mohinder was startled. "At what?" Shawn cried.

Rickie got the elbow of his friend in the rips. "Shut up already, stupid." he hissed and Rickie obeyed.

"You guys should drive back home." Mohinder advised the two teens. "You´re safest when you stay away from Sylar."

"No way." Greg objected. "That asshole killed our buddy. He´s still on my list."

"No, he´s not." Mohinder replied, calmly. "If anything you´re on his list."

"What?"

"You have an ability. Sylar kills people like you."

"What are you guys? Some kind of government agents?"

"Exactly." Shawn answered, giving the boys his best serious gaze.

"Then let me see your badges." Greg demanded. "Or whatever it is, you guys have. Otherwise you can scratch that we just drive back home and let this guy get away. We´re not going anywhere."

"We can´t take you with us." Mohinder told him, matter of factly.

"Oh, guess what." Greg replied cockily. "We don´t leave you a choice."

A heavy silence settled among the four of them. Shawn knew the gaze, Greg gave Mohinder. It was the same gaze Gus got, when Shawn tried to convince him that skydiving over the Cape Horn would be a good idea for their next vacation. This boy would not be convinced any time soon. The only one who hadn´t realized that yet, was Mohinder.

Shawn cleared his throat. "Dude." he hissed. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

The scientist took a few steps aside, his glare still on the boy, and Shawn grabbed his arm, to make him look at him.

"Is it really a good idea," he whispered. "to stand around here and discuss with them, wasting time we could use to chase after Sy? These guys won´t stay behind and the only option we have is either to leave them here … or to drive them back ourselves. And I don´t think that either of that is a good idea."

Mohinder didn´t respond, but the way his jaw was working, Shawn could tell that he´d gotten the message. Unfortunately so had Greg.

"Great." he exclaimed, regarding the scientist´s gaze. "You can follow us behind."

"Wow, dude." Shawn cried, holding up both hands. "How about you guys follow _us_?"

Greg only snorted. "Whatever." And with that he walked back to his Dodge, his friend following in silence.

"I don´t have a good feeling about this." Mohinder said and Shawn nodded.

"Right. That dude is some kind of an a-hole."

He noticed the uncertain frown of his scientist friend, but it was gone too quickly to pay any more attention to it. Greg had started the motor and just in case he should get the idea to lead the way after all, they hurried into their own car, to take the lead, to make sure those kids would stay behind them. Where it was save.


	5. Facing the Storm

**Facing the storm**

The two cars drove over the plain of the desert, a silver X-Trail leading the way for a red Dodge, whose driver had just refused to stay save. But of course there was no save in this situation. Not as long as they didn´t know what was waiting for them. Even Shawn knew that. Only that he refused to let this possibility of danger rule his whole thinking. It was still Sylar they were looking for …

He halted in his own thoughts. Well … maybe it was better not to think about it too much. There´d be enough time to think it through as soon as they were there.

Next to him Mohinder threw a glance in the rearview mirror, at the red Dodge. Shawn did the same and couldn´t help but think: Wow. What an awesome car. He wondered if the guy would allow him to drive it for a brief joyride. Driving such a car just had to feel like driving a monster truck.

"We need to keep these guys out of trouble, Shawn." Mohinder mentioned, interrupting his thoughts.

Shawn glanced at the scientist, who had his eyes trained on the rearview mirror, so concentrated as if they were driving on a highway and he´d just noticed someone was following them.

"You sure we should deny their help so easily?" Shawn asked. "I mean the dude has a power."

"That´s exactly the reason why we have to protect him. He´s Sylar´s prey. And he´s too young to see the danger."

"I don´t know." Shawn argued. "If Sylar really wanted to kill the dude, why did he fly away? He had him."

"He saw us coming."

"So you think he´s so scared of us that he would drop his prey?"

Mohinder didn´t answer, didn´t even look at him. Shawn lay his head askew and opened his mouth, to say something. But Mohinder was faster.

"How can you still trust in his good nature?" he snapped. "You were there too. You know what he did. How many people he killed. People _we_ helped him find."

Shawn frowned, thinking.

"So it´s more about you beating up yourself. Is it that? That was another life, Doc."

"Not for me. And for you neither. Don´t tell me that you forgot about Abigail and your child. This other life was as real as this one. Just because it doesn´t exist any longer, doesn´t make the memories go away."

Shawn lowered his eyes, for a moment. "But one day, you´ll have to stop the grudge." he said, quietly. "I mean …"

"Tell me how." Mohinder demanded. "Tell me."

But Shawn didn´t. Instead he regarded the geneticist with a knowing look.

"I understand that you´re pissed." he told him. "I was pissed too. But … of course, I wasn´t as close to him as you were. Sure you´re pissed. I only worked for him. You were his friend."

Mohinder didn´t look at him, his fingers gripping the wheel, almost deforming it. "Exactly." he pressed out, through gritted teeth.

Shawn was almost too surprised to give a response. That was the first time that the scientist had admitted this. He met the doctor´s gaze, still as furious as before.

"I once asked you what you´d feel if Gus would turn out to be someone else." Mohinder recalled and Shawn nodded. "You never answered that question. What if he told you, he was not the one you thought he´d be? That he lied to you for all those years."

Shawn shrugged. "Depends on who he´d be. If he´d tell me he was Tiger Woods, I´d say, „Hey. Things can only get better." If he´d tell me he was a secret agent in witness protection because someone tried to wipe out his memories, I´d ask him to get me a place in the agency. And if he´d turn out to be a …"

"Why do you always have to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make everything ridiculous?"

Shawn frowned. "I was totally serious." he said and earned himself a strange look from the scientist. He really didn´t understand that reaction. Had he said anything wrong?

Mohinder only shook his head, and faced ahead again. He didn´t try to pick up their former talk.

**...**

About a few minutes later, the red Dodge behind them broke out all the sudden, tires swirling up sand, leaving a cloud of dust behind, when the truck raced away, heading straight for the chain of mountains at the horizon.

Mohinder hit the brakes instantly, cursing at the stupid kid.

"What the hell are they doing?"

"Dude. They must have seen something."

Mohinder swirled around, staring at the mountains. So far away, no normal human being could have seen anything over there.

"No." he said. "Not _they_ saw something. Greg did."

Before Shawn had a chance to exclaim how awesome this was, Mohinder had already entered the gear and reversed the X-Trail, so fast, Shawn got pushed back into his seat. Thirty seconds later, they were racing over the plain, after the Dodge, leaving a second cloud of dust behind. From far away someone would only see two cars approaching the mountains, together, racing each other.

"Wooohooooo!" Shawn shouted, exhilarated and made the scientist flinch at the noise.

But he ignored the annoyed look Mohinder gave him. Finally this trip to the desert became what it was supposed to be. Fun. Man that was like taking part in that desert race thing, people did every year in some desert, whose name he´d forgotten. This time when the car jumped over the rocks and holes in the ground, Shawn enjoyed it.

"Go faster." he shouted. "We can catch them. Go! Go!"

And Mohinder did. He entered the highest gear and made the motor howl and the car jump. The car rental service wouldn´t be thrilled by what they did to their X-Trail but in this moment, Shawn so didn´t care.

They´d almost reached the mountains, still following the dust cloud Greg´s Dodge had left behind. The X-Trail crossed said cloud and when they came out of it on the other side, only half a second later, the Dodge was gone.

Shawn threw his head in all directions, trying to spot it. So did Mohinder. But the Dodge was nowhere in sight. As if it had vanished into thin air.

Mohinder stopped the car and turned around in his seat, looking. So did Shawn. But it was no use. They´d lost them. And then something new happened. Something totally unexpected.

The dust cloud the Dodge had produced, suddenly decided that, instead of settling down, it would be more fun to grow and develop into a full sized sandstorm. Within a minute, the X-Trail was surrounded by hauling wind and the sun above them had gone dark, only remaining a weak spot of light through the dust that surrounded them.

"Wow, dude." Shawn exclaimed. "What the hell?" He met Mohinder´s gaze, but the scientist didn´t hold his gaze for very long. "Okay." Shawn raised his hands, as if to claim his own innocence. "Worst timing ever for a weather change."

"No." Mohinder objected, his eyes on the outside. "That´s no weather change."

"What?"

"That´s Alice."

The scientist flinched, skipping forward in his seat, his eyes glancing up. He must have spotted something. But Shawn couldn´t see what. And he didn´t get a chance to ask him either, because a second later, Mohinder had opened the door and was out of the car.

"What? Dude!" Shawn cried but the door had slammed shut on its own already and through the window he could see Mohinder, running for the slope, bowed over against the force of the storm, but full speed nevertheless.

"Dammit." Shawn cursed and tried to open his own door, to follow him.

But in this moment the storm increased it´s force even more, pressing against the door from the outside, keeping it shut, as if it didn´t want him to get out. Shawn sat there, looked at the window of his door, at the darkness out there, only disturbed by the racing sand that shattered against the glass, and didn´t know what to do. Unnecessary to say, he decided very quickly that he´d better stay inside for the time being.

But Mohinder was out there. Dear god, he must have lost it. Who would run through such a storm without protection? And the way it had looked, he´d even tried to climb up the slope.

That was not good.

Shawn tried to think, fast. He had to do something. Anything. He couldn´t allow him to run around out there, and just sit around in here, where it was save, not doing anything. So he climbed behind the steering wheel. And started the motor.

With a curse, he entered the gear and drove on. Slowly, because he didn´t see anything. Not even the headlights could do very much to help him orient himself. Somewhere ahead he believed he saw something that resembled a path and headed for it. Soon he was driving uphill, which was good, because he figured that this would be the place where he´d find Mohinder. And maybe the boys. But first he had to take care not to get blown off the path by that heavy storm.

What the hell was going on here anyway? What was Suresh thinking to just run off? If he survived this, Shawn would so kill him for that. Something like that was just … rude.

The storm seemed to decrease a little on this side of the mountain. It didn´t tear on the car that fast anymore, and Shawn figured he could afford to drive a little faster than five miles per hour.

Only a minute later, he rounded a corner, and all the sudden there was something red before him, appearing just out of the dust. He let go of the accelerator at once, hitting the brake instead. But too late. The crash, in spite of the slow speed he´d been driving, was rough and sudden and threw him forward, onto the steering wheel. And then, just as he looked up, to see what had happened, something exploded.

Once again the storm howled, got stronger, as if in a reaction to the force that had just wiped out half of the street before him, and Shawn could feel the wheels of his car slipping over the ground, only for a moment before it crashed sideways into the slope. The impact threw him sideways. When he rebound, his head was faster than it was good for him, smashing into the window. His ears started to ring immediately, his brain throbbing from the pain.

Outside the storm kept howling, whistling through the holes in the car´s body. And somehow this sound made him very very sleepy.

**...**

Shawn looked up and glanced around his listeners. All of them were practically hanging on his every word, even Lassiter could visibly not wait for what would come next.

"And?" he asked, but Shawn only cocked his head, not sure what he meant.

"How did you end up outside the car?" Peter clarified the question.

Shawn gasped, understanding at last. He halted, thinking. "I … I can´t remember."

Strange. He hadn´t even noticed that yet. But now that he thought about it … he really didn´t know. Very strange.

"I think we can be positive that it was the Dodge you ran into." Lassiter summarized at last. "Any idea what happened to it afterward?"

Shawn shook his head, glancing to the edge of the path.

"It´s not down there." Nathan informed him. "So that explosion can´t have effected it too much."

"Not if they could still drive away afterward." Peter agreed.

"I knew these guys were a-holes." Shawn groaned, holding his head. "Leaving me behind just like that. For the second time. That´s not nice."

"So now we have two missing people, a killer on the run and two rednecks running around, trying to play local hero." Lassiter once again summarized the situation. "Great."

"We should keep going." Noah agreed. "If Mohinder is still alive after that storm, he might need our help. And about Hiro … if he´s still on this continent … or in our time for that matter."

"Why should he jump to another time?" Shawn argued weakly. "That doesn´t make any sense, dude."

"Nathan and I will search the area from above." Peter decided. "If they´re close, we might find them."

Noah gave a nod at the suggestion. "We´ll take the car. It looks as if it still runs."

"Sure it still runs." Shawn spoke, trying to struggle back to his feet. He lost his balance though and stumbled into Lassiter, who shoved him back to his feet and into the backseat, almost in one move.

The fake psychic waited until the world (and his stomach) stopped spinning. When he opened his eyes again, he found that even though the world didn´t spin anymore, it was still moving. And fast. But then he realized that it was the car that was moving. Bennet was driving and Lassiter sat in the passenger seat, glancing back to him occasionally.

"Where are we now?" Shawn managed to ask.

"Almost at the bottom of the mountain." Bennet answered. "Can you tell us if this is the place where you lost track of Suresh?"

Shawn looked out of the window. "It all looks so different in the daylight." he said. But then he spotted a heap of debris and nodded. "Yeah. That´s where we lost the truck. Where he jumped out and ran off. Up that slope if I´m not mistaken."

"He might have seen Sylar up there." Bennet mused and Lassiter nodded in agreement.

Shawn glanced at them, surprised. He hadn´t thought of that yet, but it would make sense. What other reason could the scientist have to run out into a storm like that? Only if he thought he´d have a chance to catch Sylar before he was gone again. Damn, why hadn´t he seen that earlier? Maybe because of that freaky storm that had threatened to eat him alive inside his car. But that was just a guess.

Bennet slowed down and eventually stopped the car. When Shawn looked ahead, he saw why. Peter had landed before them. He came walking up to them like a police officer. Shawn almost expected him to ask for license and registration when Bennet opened the window for him.

"Did you find Suresh?" the Company man asked.

"No. But we found someone else."

He looked ahead, and the three of them followed his gaze. From the other side of the mountain, another car came driving around the corner, heading for them. It needed a moment, until the car was closing in, before they understood the meaning of it.

"O´Hara?" Lassiter cried.

"Jules?" Shawn shook his head, confused. "Gus?"

The car stopped, nose to nose with the X-Trail and four people got out. Juliet, Gus, Nathan and Hiro Nakamura, who immediately threw up his arms in victory.

"Yattaaa!" he shouted, grinning from ear to ear.

"What the heck …" Bennet cried, getting out of the car.

"Shawn." Juliet cried, tearing the back door open. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"Hey guys." Shawn climbed out, still stunned. "How did you get here?"

"What do you think?" Gus barked. "We followed you."

A look at Hiro told Shawn all he needed to know. "Traitor." he grumbled and the smile on the young Japanese got smaller.

Lassiter stood beside his partner and massaged the bridge of his nose, as if fighting a headache.

"Just start at the beginning, O´Hara." he begged.

**...**

A few hours earlier, back at the hotel in Washington:

It had been almost twenty minutes since Shawn had left the hotel suite. Gus hadn´t noticed it, because the amazing opening sequence of Transformers 3 had kept him busy. But after that was through, he´d started to wonder, where Shawn had vanished to.

Jules had wanted to go out and look for him, but Gus had told her to stay. That he wanted to move his legs anyway. So he´d left the suite to see where Shawn had gone to. Why should he leave anyway, when Transformers Dark of the Moon was on an amazing screen like that? Was he crazy?

But it was Shawn he talked about, and so he figured he´d have a silly enough reason to run off, just like that. Didn´t matter. Gus would drag him back in front of the screen as soon as he found him.

Strange enough he heard his voice coming from Hiro Nakamura´s room. Maybe he wanted to invite the Japanese to take part in their home theater? What an idea. But sharing the wealth was nothing Gus would disagree to, if that was the case.

He opened the door, knocking faintly. Somehow this whole situation seemed weird to him. As if it was not about watching Transformers. Not at all. When he saw Shawn, standing there along with Suresh and Hiro, the latter having his hands on both their arms, as if he prepared to teleport them away, Gus´ jaw dropped down.

"Shawn!" he cried and a second later the three men were already gone. Vanished into thin air. What the hell?

Gus stood there, flabbergasted. What had just happened? Had he really just seen how Shawn and the two others had teleported away? Just like this? Out of the blue? Right now, while they´d planned to watch Transformers together? What the hell was wrong with Shawn?

After he´d overcome the shock, Gus did the first best thing he could think of. He took out his cell phone and called Shawn. When he answered him, he didn´t even wait for him to finish, saying Hello.

"Shawn!" he barked at him. "Where the hell are you? What are you doing?"

"Ehm, dude." was the evasive answer and damn he knew that tone. That´s what Shawn sounded like when he tried to hide something from him. "That´s really not the best time right now." he told him promptly. "I´m on a secret mission, what means I really can´t tell you where I am and what I´m doing."

"Secret mission! Shawn!"

"Gotta go, dude. I promise I tell you everything as soon as I´m back."

And with that he hung up on him, making all of Gus´ threats and curses useless. No one was on the other end anymore, to hear them. God dammit.

Gus looked at the cell in his hand and considered if he should try to call him again. But Shawn had hung up on him and he would probably not answer again. Not right now. Damn, how could he just hang up on him?

In his desperation, he hurried back into the suite, scaring Jules out of the bed, right in the middle of an action scene. When she saw his face, she jumped up all the way.

"What is it, Gus?" she asked. "What´s the matter?"

Gus held up his hands, to calm her down. "Juliet, please don´t freak out." he said and muted the TV. "I just saw Shawn, teleporting away, along with Hiro and Mohinder."

"What?" Juliet´s cry was almost hysterical. "Where to?" she demanded to know.

"I don´t know. I called him but he hung up on me."

The concern in Juliet´s face transformed into downright anger within seconds. She reached out for his cell phone and snatched it away from him, in a manner that actually made him flinch.

"Let´s see if he dares to hang up again." she mumbled, dialing the number. Gus watched her waiting for the answer. Eventually he heard Shawn´s voice, even though the cell was not put on speaker.

_"Gus, I already told you, I can´t talk right now …"_ Shawn´s voice squeaked in Juliet´s ear.

"Shawn, it´s me." she informed him, strictly. "What are you doing again? Please, tell me you´re not running into a catastrophe again."

Gus watched her face closely, while Shawn answered her, faintly: _"Of course not. Why would you think that?"_

Juliet´s expression was furious now. "You will tell me where you are right now." she demanded, pointing her finger to the ground as if to underline her statement. "We´ll come and save you from whatever trouble you´re getting yourself into."

_"I´m not getting myself into trouble, Jules."_ Gus heard his friend say. _"Why don´t you just trust me?"_

Juliet raised an eyebrow, bored at the question. "Shawn." she spoke, dryly. "Where are you?"

_"Don´t you worry about me, I´m perfectly fine."_ Shawn replied. _"Everything is just … Holy crap! I need to go, Jules. See ya soon."_

"Shawn?" Jules gasped, worried sick. "Shawn, what happened? Shawn? Shawn! Dammit!"

She stared down on the phone in her hand, clenching it frustrated.

"What?" Gus cried. "What happened?"

"He hung up on me." Jules shook her head. "I don´t believe, he just hung up on me."

"Believe me, I know the feeling." Gus assured her. He took a moment, to allow her to calm down, before he asked: "So what do we do now?"

Juliet took a deep breath, still trying to steady her nerves. "Do you have Hiro Nakamura´s number?" she then asked him.

Gus snapped his fingers, immediately getting her drift. "Good idea. Wait." He took back his phone from her and went to the menu. "I have it in my memory. You know, just in case … Here it is."

He called the number and waited for a response.

"Hello?" the small voice of the time traveler answered his call.

"Hiro." he cried, relieved. "This is Gus."

"Gus." was the uncertain answer. "Oh. Ehm. What can I do for you?" The smile he heard in the voice now, sounded false, even if he couldn´t see the man´s face.

Juliet lost her patience and grabbed the phone, taking it from him. "Hiro." she spoke. "Juliet. We know you and Shawn are somewhere where you shouldn´t be. Where is that?"

_"Ehm."_ the young Japanese replied and claimed: _"I don´t know what you mean. I´m in the hotel. Downstairs. At the bar. Hear?"_

"Hiro, don´t push me now." Juliet warned him, eyes closed. "I´m already angry enough. You´ll tell me where you are, right now."

There was a brief pause and she could actually hear him swallow nervously. _"We´re in Arizona."_ he told her at last, leaving her speechless for a moment.

"Why the hell are you in Arizona?" she cried.

Gus´ eyes went wide at those words. He stared at her, mouthing a disbelieving "What?"

_"Shawn would not want me to say."_ Hiro told Juliet. _"Please, don´t worry. I´ll protect him. He´ll be perf …"_

"If you dare to tell me that he´s perfectly save, I forget myself." Juliet barked, and made Gus skip back a little. "I warn you, Hiro. If you don´t come back here right away, I´ll drag you through the phone, I swear to god."

Gus flinched a second time, when Hiro Nakamura appeared next to him only a moment later, and they both flinched when Juliet turned around to him, fuming in her anger. Hiro made a quick bow before her, mumbling an apology.

"Very sorry, detective O´Hara." he said. "I was only trying to help."

"Help with what?" Juliet demanded to know.

"Finding Sylar."

"Sylar is in Arizona?" Gus cried.

"Apparently." "How do they know?" Juliet asked.

At this question, Hiro halted, uncertain. "Ehm. I … I don´t know." he shrugged, smirking apologetically. "I forgot to ask them."

Juliet threw her head back, groaning. "Great."

"They wanted to find him." Hiro explained. "To talk to him. So he won´t become villain again."

Gus tried to estimate how Juliet would react next. Sure she would freak out again. But instead she closed her eyes and lowered her head, shaking it in a tired way.

"All right." she exclaimed. "But that´s still no excuse for running off like that. He won´t go after a serial killer once again. Not without us. You´ll bring us there. And you´ll help us find him."

Hiro hesitated, uncertain. But eventually he nodded, humbly.


	6. Gus and Juliet to the Rescue - Or not?

**Gus and Juliet to the rescue – or not?**

The difference in temperature and humidity was a big one, Gus noticed that at once. It was so much hotter here, but not entirely unpleasant. He´d been freezing these last two weeks, they´d had to spend in this hotel, in Washington, so far away from the warm climate of California. This desert heat was a little more than he was used to but it was definitely an improvement. He could already feel his tensed muscles relax in this nice inviting heat.

Next to him Juliet glanced around, looking for Shawn. But all they could see were old houses and a phone booth in a corner of this allay.

"Where are they?" Juliet demanded to know.

"We split up." Hiro told them. "To look for Sylar."

"Shawn?" Gus called out, but of course no one answered.

"How long is this ago?" Juliet wanted to know.

Hiro shrugged. "Don´t know. Ten minutes?"

Juliet nodded, her jaw still tensed. "Let´s go look for them."

And they did. They walked down the street, occasionally calling Shawn´s name, but the only reaction they caused was some people turning around to them, irritated. Eventually they reached another corner, and looking into that allay made them all halt in shock. There was a foot sticking out behind a trashcan. And there was blood.

Gus found his feet unable to move, but Juliet was inside that allay in no time. She reached the body, stopping abruptly and exhaled, relieved.

"Oh, thanks god." she breathed and Gus finally found himself able to move again, to follow her to this dead person, that wasn´t Shawn.

He´d barely reached them, to see what horrible thing had happened to that poor guy, when he heard footsteps approaching. A lot of them and very fast.

"Freeze." someone shouted before he even knew what had happened. "Hands up."

Three police officers had surrounded the entrance of their alley, aiming their guns at them, and Gus was paralyzed, unable to move his arms more than a few inches up his sides.

Hiro on the other hand, raised both of his hands immediately, gasping in shock. He was still holding his cell phone.

"Weapon." one of the officers cried and without waiting for an order, he pulled the trigger of his gun.

The shot was clumsy at best but somehow it hit it´s target pinpointed in the heart. Hiro flinched, jumped back and threw the cell phone away as if it had bitten him. It hit the ground, not even able to crackle anymore.

"Smithers, goddammit, put the gun down." the woman with the sheriff star on her chest cried. "What did I tell you?"

"I thought he´s holding a gun." the man defended himself, nervously.

"And that´s the reason why you´re supposed to wear glasses, dammit." she spat, wiping her face to calm down. "Everyone unharmed?"

Gus met Hiro´s eyes, tensed and close to fainting. And then he did. They both did.

Juliet was on her knees at once, to check on them, exhaling when she found them both unharmed.

"What happened?" the sheriff asked, concerned her man might have shot someone after all.

"Nothing." Juliet told her. "They are okay. Sort of."

She met the other woman´s gaze, confused, but eventually the sheriff accepted her word and straightened.

"All right." she said. "Good. I hereby inform you that you´re all under arrest."

"What?" Juliet cried, jumping up, dropping Gus´ head just as he was about to come around. "We didn´t do this. We found this body, just before you came here."

"You can tell that at the station." was all the sheriff would respond.

"Wait." Juliet took a step towards her, hands raised in a non-threatening way. "I´m a police detective. Look." She slowly reached into her pocket, closely watched by the sheriff and her deputies, to show her badge.

"Santa Barbara?" the sheriff asked, after she´d looked at the badge closely. "What are you doing in Arizona, detective?"

"We´re looking for a colleague of us." Juliet explained. "He went here to investigate a case."

"This case is not by any chance, about a guy that kills teenagers in strange cities?" the sheriff raised a brow at her.

Juliet swallowed, uncomfortable. "Actually, I´m not sure." she admitted. "He … he didn´t tell us what he was up to."

The other woman eyed her suspiciously for a moment, trying to figure out what to do with this. But eventually she lowered her gun and put it away, sighing.

"All right." she said. "It´s not my business how you people work in California. But I need your statement on this case. So I have to ask you to follow me to the station. You and your … two friends."

**...**

It was almost two hours later that they were finally released from the local sheriffs office, to go back to their own business. They´d given their statements as honest as possible, regarding the reasons for their presence in this city, how they´d found the body, and it was their great luck that no one seemed to care very much about how they´d gotten to Arizona in the first place. As well as the fact that a witness confirmed their arrival in that alley being very briefly before the police had cornered them.

Juliet had to do a lot of persuading to convince sheriff Auster that it was unnecessary to call chief Vick and ask her for confirmation regarding their case here in Arizona. Afterward she wasn´t quiet sure herself how she´d managed that. But questioning such luck was not a good idea, her mother had always told her that. So she didn´t.

She didn´t really care anyway. All she wanted to do was to find out what had happened to Shawn, and if he´d stumbled over the same body as they had. And in what way.

Juliet sighed, heavily, looking down the street. She felt bad. Really bad. Not just because they were wandering through the streets, aimlessly. Carlton had called her, an hour ago, just before sheriff Auster´d called her to the interview. He´d asked where the heck everybody had vanished to, and Juliet had lied to him. Why had she lied to him? She didn´t even know. Maybe she´d felt guilty? For having done the same thing as Shawn had done? Just running off without a word. Dammit how did they end up in this place?

"How are we supposed to find Shawn now?" Gus asked, obviously not expecting an answer. They all knew that after two hours, he could be anywhere.

"Maybe I know where he is." Hiro spoke up, making them turn around to him in surprise.

"Where?"

"Coyote Sands." the young time traveler said. "That´s a place in the desert."

"Why should he be there?"

"He and Dr. Suresh were looking for Sylar. That would be the place to go."

"Look." Gus cried out, all the sudden, pointing at something over the street and hurried away, to the gate of a car rental service. Juliet needed him to pick up the jacket that hung there, to understand his excitement.

"No way." she breathed.

"Shawn must have forgotten it here." Gus deducted, rightfully.

Juliet took the jacket from him, still not able to believe it was really Shawn´s.

"They must have taken a car to drive out there." Hiro deducted too. "To Coyote Sands."

Juliet faced him and she just knew he was right. She nodded. "And that´s what we´ll do too." she decided, already glancing over the parking lot of the rental service.

"I could bring us there." Hiro offered, uncertain. "You know … faster."

Juliet thought about this for a second, but shook her head. "We don´t know if they _really_ went there. To that place you said. And if they stopped somewhere on the way? Or _got_ stopped by something?"

"Or someone?" Gus added.

Juliet nodded in agreement. "No, it´s better we take a car, just like they did. We´ll trace their steps one by one, until we find them." She clutched the jacket in her hands. "And then I´ll strangle Shawn for running off on us."

**...**

Almost an hour into the drive, they had to stop, somewhere out in the desert, already too far away from any street to talk about that they´d lost the way. Because if there was no way, how could they have lost it? But that seemed to be exactly what had happened to them.

Juliet looked at the map on the steering wheel before her and then out of the window, huffing in frustration.

"Dammit."

"You´re sure this was the right way?" Gus asked, frantically.

"I was." she replied, glancing at him. "But …" she could only shake her head.

He wagged his head, much calmer than she felt. "Great." His voice didn´t even sound frustrated, just tired.

"Didn´t you say you were there before, at this camp?" Juliet turned around to Hiro.

"I was." the young man shrugged his shoulder, apologetically. "But Ando drove."

Juliet closed her eyes and let her head sink down, until her forehead touched the paper of the map.

"I´m sorry." Hiro said behind her. "But don´t worry. We´re not lost. I can bring us back home, any time."

"We´re not lost yet." Juliet decided, tired, but too stubborn to give up.

She threw one last glance at the useless map and put it away. Ahead, a few miles away, she could see a chain of mountains.

"Let´s try it there." she decided. "Maybe we can see, where to go from up there."

Gus nodded in agreement, not saying a word and Juliet entered the gear, driving on. It was always a frustrating and unnerving thing to lose the way, especially when you were strange somewhere. But losing the way in a desert, while you were looking for someone that was in potential life threatening danger, was even worse. Juliet´s nails were digging into the steering wheel, no matter how much she tried not to.

At the bottom of the mountain, she found a path, almost a small street, that led upwards. If there was a street maybe they would find something soon. Maybe there were even people living out here?

They reached a higher level, almost the top of the mountain, still looking for a spot where they could see the plain, so they could decide what direction to head for. And then, all the sudden, Gus cried out.

"Did you see that?"

Juliet flinched, hitting the brakes, just enough to slow down the car. "What?" she cried, looking around.

"Someone was there." Gus pointed ahead, at some dry bushes, growing beside the street. "Just a second ago."

"Was it Shawn?"

"I´m not sure, I didn´t see it."

Juliet stopped the car and got out, closely followed by Gus and Hiro.

"Shawn?" she called. "Shawn are you there?"

A rustling sound made them turn around, to the other side of the street, farther ahead. Now Juliet saw the person too. But it wasn´t Shawn. It was a woman. She rushed over the street and between the bushes, as if she was trying to hide from them.

"That´s a woman." Juliet exclaimed, startled. "Is she lost?"

"She sure looks like that." Gus mumbled, irritated at this situation.

"Ma´am?" Juliet called out, walking down the street to where the woman had disappeared. "Ma´am, are you all right? Hello?"

Another sound made her look into a totally new direction. The woman was running away from them, dodging from rock to bush to rock, like a rabbit that tried to outsmart the fox.

"Ma´am, please wait." Juliet cried. "I´m a police detective. Do you need help?" She hurried to follow her. "Please, you don´t need to be scared."

She´d just reached the bushes, when a sudden wind came up, startling her. But a simple disturbance like that would have been something she could ignore. Only this little wind, didn´t stay little. Quiet the contrary. It became stronger and stronger with each second, and soon Juliet could barely stand without leaning into this strange wind. Dirt got thrown into her face.

"That´s a sand storm." Gus shouted next to her, over the howling of the wind. "We need to take cover."

"But the woman."

Gus didn´t argue with her. He just grabbed her arm and dragged her away, behind a row of high rocks. The wind was not as bad behind them but it didn´t change the fact that this storm became worse and worse, as if Armageddon had started right in this moment. Juliet clung to the rock before her, unable to believe what was happening around them.

"What´s going on here?" she shouted but of course neither Gus nor Hiro could answer her. Even if they´d tried, she wouldn´t have understood half of their words. The wind was howling so loud, it was hurting her ears. The day that had been bright so far, was dark now, the sun hidden behind the flying sand in the sky.

It felt like an eternity, but when the storm finally let go of them and moved away, the sun had barely moved. The shadows were still the same, and when Juliet checked her watch it had been barely ten minutes, since all this had started.

She looked out, from behind the rocks that had probably saved them from getting blown away, and spotted their car, pressed against the slope and covered in dust, like after a rally.

"What was that?" she exclaimed, still shaking. "Is it normal that a storm comes up that fast?"

"I don´t know." Gus´ voice was shaking too. "I don´t think so."

"I think I know who that woman was." Hiro Nakamura spoke, quietly.

Juliet and Gus stared at him, shocked.

"Who?"

"Peter Petrelli told me the story." Hiro said and told them the story as well. He was almost done talking when his head snapped upwards, to the sky. He squinted against the sunlight.

Juliet shielded her eyes with her hand, against the sun, and spotted some moving spots in the sky, too big for birds. They were approaching them quickly. When she finally recognized them, Hiro´d already thrown up his arms.

"Yattaaa!" he shouted, happily.

"Are you guys all right?" Peter asked, as soon as his feet touched the ground.

"What are _you_ doing here?" was all Juliet knew to reply, acknowledging the dirty clothes of both men. That just wasn´t right. They couldn´t be here. They hadn´t told them. They hadn´t told anyone. And when Carlton had called, she´d lied to him.

"We could ask you the same question." Nathan Petrelli replied, his eyes almost accusing.

"Noah and Carlton were worried about Hiro and Mohinder." his brother explained, a little more forthcoming.

"You know where Suresh is?" Nathan wanted to know.

"No." Juliet answered, heavily. "We were looking for him and Shawn. God, I hope they didn´t get into the storm."

"I´m afraid he did, though." Nathan mentioned.

"We all did." his brother agreed.

"You found him?" Juliet almost couldn´t believe it.

But Peter nodded, affirming her hopes. "Noah and Carlton took him in the car." he told them. "They´re on their way down the mountain."

Juliet exclaimed, more than just relieved and when she met Gus´ gaze she simply hugged him, not able to keep her relieve concealed.

"I show you the way." Nathan said, motioning for their car. Juliet nodded, still too overwhelmed to say anything.

"I´ll keep flying." Peter informed them. "Maybe I get lucky and spot Mohinder."

"Stay in sight." his brother ordered and caught a brief glare for it, before Peter took off the ground again.

**...**

"And that´s how we met up with you." Juliet finished her story.

"Man." Shawn exclaimed, shaking his head. After hearing all those stories his head was smoking. "I have the feeling we all got Hoodwinked, big deal!"

"You know that´s right." Gus immediately caught up with his reference and held out his fist.

"Whaaat!"

Lassiter frowned, irritated. He shook his head. "Fact is the only one who´s still missing is Suresh." he found at last.

Shawn nodded in agreement. "And Sylar."

**...**

Mohinder woke up to the sound of wind, howling and whistling outside of his window. He was hot and cold all at once, and even though he was lying in his bed, he felt as if bedded on rocks or junk, or something similar uncomfortable. Everything in him was spinning. He wanted to open his eyes but he´d rather kept them shut. Opening them seemed a bad idea. God, he felt so sick.

There was a sound, in the room with him. Footsteps.

"Mother?" he mumbled, his tongue heavy, as heavy as his eyelids.

"Sshhhhh." came a soothing whisper. "Mohinder. You´ve slept for almost three hours."

Something cool touched his head, a damp cloth, just like his mother´d always done it, when he was sick. Mohinder sighed, sinking back into the pillow.

"I … had a horrible nightmare." he mumbled. "I dreamed … I was chasing Sylar. In a storm."

The cloth wiping his forehead halted, as if startled. Mohinder heard a faint chuckle, amused.

"Just sleep, Mohinder." his mother told him. "Rest. Take your time."

Mohinder frowned, startled by the rough sound of his mother´s voice. So unusually deep and raspy, as if she had a cold. But he was too tired and dizzy to analyze that anomaly now. His head kept spinning like crazy, and the soothing strokes of the cloth kept easing him. Eventually he finally drifted off to sleep, already chasing the dream again, chasing, chasing after …

**...**

Sylar. Up there, above them, on a path or something like that, that ran along the slope. He was standing there, looking down. As if he was the one who´d created that storm. And who knew. Maybe he had. The first thing Sylar always did after he acquired a new power was to try it out, to see what he could do.

So he did kill Alice after all. Goddamn bastard.

Mohinder reached for the door handle and got out of the car, never leaving Sylar´s form out of his sight. And then he was outside and the wind was pitching grains of sand into his face, threatening his eyes and lungs. But he needed to get up there, before Sylar could get away again, back into hiding and out of his reach. He needed to catch him, to stop him.

So he shielded his head with his arm, stooped and just ran, ran for the slope and began climbing up. His feet lost hold a few times but the wind was less strong that close to the wall, so he could afford to use his hands and pull himself up, faster. Only a minute or so later, he was at the spot, where he´d seen Sylar. But Sylar was gone.

Mohinder swirled around, searching. No. That couldn´t be. He just had to be here. He´d seen him. It had been barely a minute ago. He couldn´t have come very far. And then he heard a motor, somewhere in the howling of the storm. When he turned around, he didn´t see a car though. Instead he saw Sylar, crouching against the force of the storm, trying to take cover behind a big rock.

Mohinder didn´t remind himself of the fact that Sylar shouldn´t have to take cover from a storm he´d created himself, that he should be the one controlling it. Right now there was no space in Mohinder´s head for a coherent analytic thought like that. He just started to move, ready to take Sylar down, quickly and efficiently, before the killer had time to regain control. And he _was_ quick. Only not quick enough.

Just a moment before he was actually at Sylar, his fist already swinging down, the killer swirled around, hand stretched out, and Mohinder was raised off his feet. For a second he was flying and then his back collided with the wall, painfully, forcing the air out of his lungs. Another second passed and then a hand grabbed his hair, hurtfully and he stared into the dark eyes of the killer, raging and murderous, ready to kill. For exactly two seconds, before Sylar realized who he´d just fended.

Mohinder glared back at the shocked face before him, until the expression changed and Sylar´s features turned hard again. Surprise became anger, and the fingers on his head opened and closed, as if unsure weather to grab or to let go. Eventually they remained open.

"What are you doing here?" Sylar asked.

"I came here for you." Mohinder answered and forced himself not to be distracted by the stunned expression on the killer´s face. He mustn´t hesitate now, not for anything. Doubts could be lethal against a man like Sylar. So he grabbed the taser in his pocket tight and pushed it into the stomach of the man before him, making him double over and cry out in pain.

Still the effect of his surprise attack only lasted for so long. When he tried to follow Sylar, to keep up the force of the taser, the wind hit him from the side, too strong and too suddenly to withstand it and Mohinder lost his balance. He managed it to catch himself, but too late to be prepared for Sylar´s next attack.

He only felt the telekinetic push and then he was at the wall again, his taser torn from his hand. Through the flying dirt, he could see Sylar moving towards him, doubled over but still very conscious. And then something exploded. Rocks were flying, illuminated by the light of the fire and Mohinder's ears felt as if they wanted to explode along with the street.

He hit the ground and something else hit him, his shoulders, his back, his head. He wasn´t sure if he´d blacked out before that, but he was pretty sure he blacked out after he saw Sylar´s form leaning over him, his hand reaching out to grab him and drag him up. Everything was swirling, not just the wind. Everything. How else could he explain that delusion of Peter being beneath him, several dozen feet away, on the ground? A ground that was suddenly gone and departing so quickly that soon the only thing that was left around him, was the howling of the storm.

**...**

The howling was still there. Seemingly the only constant thing around him. But it had stopped biting into his face and tearing on his hair and clothing. Mohinder turned his head, on his pillow, and opened his eyes, widely. Now finally it all came back to him. Where he was, what had happened … and who must have been in the room with him earlier, if it hadn´t been a dream. But all the other things hadn´t been a dream either. It had happened and that could only mean …

He sat up, abruptly, looking around. It was dark but he´d been in this place before and he recognized it almost instantly. Coyote Sands. The place where his father´d studied Specials so many years ago, leading to their deaths. The place where it had all started. And now he was back here. And not alone.

A dark figure raised from an even darker corner of the room, at the sound of him sitting up. Sylar moved closer, hurriedly.

"Mohinder."

"You." Mohinder spat and jumped up. He had to reach out a hand to support himself on the wall, but his anger was too fresh to care about that. "What did you do?" he demanded to know.

Sylar stopped, startled, maybe even offended. "What did I _do_?" he repeated, in utter disbelieve. "How about I saved your ass? That´s what I did."

"That´s not what I mean." Mohinder shot back. "What did you do at the mountain?"

Sylar only frowned, uncertain. "Exactly." he made, shaking his head. "At the mountain."

"I´m talking about the explosion." Mohinder barked, fingers digging into the wood of the wall.

Sylar´s mouth dropped open at this. "You think that was me?"

"Who else would it be?"

"The two nutcakes maybe?" the killer replied. "The ones that are at my ass since I got into town?"

"Of course they´re after you." Mohinder retorted. "You killed their friend."

For a moment, Sylar seemed caught off guard, guilt written all over his face, uncertainty.

"You know about the dead boy?" he asked.

Mohinder narrowed his eyes. "I saw the body."

But the killer shook his head. "It wasn´t me." he claimed. Mohinder just couldn´t believe it.

"You actually want to tell me that you´re merely a victim of the circumstances and I misinterpreted everything? You´re so pathetic."

"It´s the truth, Mohinder."

"You really want to make me believe that you have no idea that one of them has an ability?"

"Of course, I know about his ability."

"There you have it. Case closed."

Sylar shook his head, quickly, in disbelieve. "So that´s it? You just take a few bits and put them together the way it serves your idea of … Mohinder?"

The scientist had started swaying, even with his hand on the wall. His head was spinning again, his vision starting to blacken, dots dancing before his eyes. He could hear Sylar move to his side, to lend him a hand, steadying him.

"Sit down." he advised him. "You hit your head back there, when the grenades went off."

"I hadn´t noticed." Mohinder replied dryly, holding his head, only to realize that there was a bandage around it, he truly hadn´t noticed so far.

Sylar sat him down on the cot again, taking a seat opposite of him.

"What grenades?" Mohinder asked at last, after taking a deep breath, to fight off the dizziness.

"The grenades this idiot threw at me." Sylar answered, shaking his head. "I should have seen it coming but … I didn´t think he´d go that far. Especially not in that storm. I underestimated him."

"So you actually made a mistake." Mohinder chuckled. "I´m almost shocked."

"You want to know what happened or not?"

All right, all right. Mohinder sighed. "What happened?"

A smile graced the killer´s lips, only for a moment. And Sylar started to talk.


	7. Nothing but the Truth

**Nothing but the truth**

Sylar hated this. The coldness of the night after the hotness of the day. Such differences. It was always like that in the desert, he knew, had known it before he came here, but knowing these things were no real preparation and now that he was here, he was freezing. Damn, he was freezing since he got to this crappy old town. Hopefully he´d get moving soon.

He closed the door of his rental, halting for a moment, looking down on it. Why, he wondered. Why did it have to be a Nissan? A model so well known to him, it reminded him of a road trip many years ago. He still didn´t know why he chose to rent it anyway. He could have taken another one. But he didn´t. It didn´t make any sense.

Many things didn´t make sense lately. Not even his memories. Too many of them were confused, too many of them were never meant to be. Three years of memories more than his actual lifetime should be able to fill. Three years in which he lived another life.

The life of another man. A man he never was, never was supposed to be and never would have been if things had happened the way they were supposed to happen. But they didn´t. And now he had to deal with the aftermath. So much of it. Maybe more than he would ever be able to take.

God, he hated this. He didn´t even know who he was anymore. Who he was supposed to be. Who people wanted him to be. A killer? That´s what he´d been most of the time. And it definitely seemed to be the thing people saw in him. As if they wanted it to be like that, as if that was what they needed. For him to be the monster to their knights in shining amour. Because who would recognize a hero if there was no villain for him to fight all the time, right?

Was that it? Was he serving a purpose by being this monster that he was? Was he only playing a role in this universal chess game, that simply needed a villain, no matter what the cost? And if he was, if that was really his purpose, was there even any sense in trying to resist?

Sylar breathed in through his nose, feeling the cold night air clear his mind, and finally stepped away from the car, over to the door of the gas station, to pay for his gas. The guy behind the cash register gave him a strange look, when he counted the money. As if he expected him to pull a gun on him any second.

But Sylar didn´t intent to play games around here. He wasn´t even in the mood to creep this guy out just for fun. He just wanted to get done and back to his crappy motel, so he could start off early in the morning. He spent too much time in this town already, had done too much thinking. It was time to keep moving, to finally get to his target, the reason why he came here in the first place.

"Just a minute, sir." the cashier told him. "I need to get some change from the back."

Sylar considered to wait, for two seconds.

"You know what, never mind." he said, already turning around.

To hell with the change. He just wanted to go. His nerves were blank and he needed sleep, really badly, even though he knew it wouldn´t change much about his tiredness. But staying on his feet for much longer than necessary, would not improve his mood either.

When he turned around, someone new walked in to the station. A face that was even less helpful to improve his mood.

The boy stood in the door, blocking it, not by coincidence and smiles, cockily. Got ya, asshole, this smile said. From behind a shelf with candy bars, his buddy emerged.

Sylar would have heard him come in, if he´d entered after him. Since he didn´t, the boy must have been in here all the time. And that also explained the strange look the cashier had given him earlier. Sylar sighed, fighting back the urge to moan in agony, about the fact that he couldn´t seem to catch a break, not even now.

"Thought you got away, pal?" the kid in the door asked and Sylar glared at him.

"No. I thought you did." He started moving, for the door in the boy´s back. "You still have the chance though." he told him and stopped, halfway to him. "If I were, you I´d take it."

But the boy didn´t want to take that offered chance, and kept blocking his way, as if he didn´t know that he was playing with fire. He probably really didn´t. And Sylar considered to show him, to teach this unknowing kid, what fire really is. But instead he just glared at the boy before him, hoping that the memory of their last encounter, would be enough to scare him out of his way. Usually being thrown through the air by an unseen force, shuts a big mouth like his pretty good. But this dude seemed to have the urge to prove that he had the biggest one in the county. Because he didn´t intent to be reasonable.

Sylar shot a glare at his pal, next to the candy shelf, and this guy _did_ flinch, the way he was supposed to. So it wasn´t Sylar. It was the idiot before him.

"Listen." he told him, trying to stay calm. "Under different circumstances, I´d really love to turn your insides out. But today … it´s just bad. So if you´ll excuse me."

"I don´t think I´ll excuse anything you did." the boy retorted and Sylar lost his patience.

Just as he was about to raise his hand, to move the guy out of his way, and maybe break the one or the other bone in the process as a gentle reminder, the guy addressed his friend behind the cash register.

"Mikey." he demanded and then, on command, all the lights went out, leaving Sylar blind in this unexpected darkness.

He could hear the footsteps closing in on him, quickly. And then the boy was at him and something sharp hit him in the stomach. A hand grabbed his arm, confidently moving it away so the way will be free for the knife, to stab several more times.

Sylar choked, stumbling back in surprise. That was impossible. The boy couldn´t have seen him, not in that darkness, to get him this accurately. He should have seen bright spots before his eyes, the way Sylar still did. But he was at him in seconds after it went dark, grabbed his arm without having to feel for it. And that could only mean one thing.

The lights went back on, when Sylar was sitting on the ground, bleeding. He looked up. The boy stood over him, looking down on him with a smile. And Sylar saw his eyes. Everybody was squinting when the lights came back on, including him. But not the boy. His eyes were wide open, and he didn´t even blink, didn´t even seem to notice the difference. He wasn´t blind, Sylar knew that. No, this was something entirely different.

"You." he breathed, amazed by that discovery.

"Tried to warn you, pal." the boy cooed, still way too confident. "But you just wanted to know …"

That was the moment when Sylar got up from the ground, not like someone that had received a good dozen stabs in his guts, but like someone that was ready to attack. It was the moment, when the guy´s smile faded away at last. Sylar shook his head, smiling.

"Well, well." he said. "If that isn´t a coincidence."

**...**

There was a moment of silence between them, when Sylar hesitated.

"So they attacked you." Mohinder summarized what he´d heard so far. "And then what? You killed the boy in self defense?"

"That was almost a week ago." Sylar revealed. "No one died in that night."

Mohinder frowned, shaking his head, confused. "What …?"

"Someone disturbed the little … argument we had." Sylar explained. "A deputy. And I decided it was better to just leave. You know, live and let die." he halted, reconsidering his words. "Metaphorically."

Mohinder sighed, rubbing his eyes. "So how _did_ the boy die?" he asked.

"It all went down right after I called you …"

**...**

Sylar listened, to the man on the other end of the line, his eyes closed. It wasn´t that he was surprised that Mohinder had called the cops on him. But the fact that he´d done it in the first place … it just hurt. After all this time, it did. He´d called to apologize after all.

"_What was I supposed to do?"_ Mohinder now asked him, defending his actions. _"You hardly could have expected me to do anything differently." _

Sylar sighed. "No." he admitted. "I guess not."

He heard a sound in the line, similar to his own. _"Tell me where you are."_ Mohinder asked but Sylar couldn´t. Not yet.

"You would only send people after me." he said, rightfully. "Don´t worry. I don´t plan to kill anyone."

"_I can´t believe that and you know that."_ was all Mohinder would say and Sylar closed his eyes, again, gritting his teeth.

"I know." he said. And then: "Goodbye, Mohinder."

"_No, wait. Sylar? Sylar!"_

But Sylar hung up. There was no sense in keeping this up. He´d wanted to apologize and he´d done that. Nothing more to say. Not yet.

He turned around, away from the phone booth, to walk back to his car. But someone was standing in his way.

"You." he rasped, feeling the anger rise in his chest.

"Now it´s payback time, pal." the stupid kid announced, while his two friends showed up left and right of Sylar, like in a classical ambush.

Sylar glared at them. "You really should go home to your mothers." he advised them. "You have no idea what you´re getting yourselves into. No. Idea."

"I think, I know that better than you do." the boy replied, and pulled a switchblade. "This is our town."

"I didn´t see a name tag on you, reading the word mayor."

"You just keep being a smartass. But even you can´t take down three of us."

At this Sylar just couldn´t help but smiled. "You think so, Thirty Cent?"

"Now!" the boy ordered and then Sylar got attacked, from both sides the same time.

He reached out a hand, throwing one of the kids back instantly. The second one, stopped just before he reached him and when Sylar´s eyes found him, he skipped back, scared to death.

"Get him!" his "boss" ordered, angry about how unreliable his friends were.

"But Greg …" the boy cried.

"Do it, Rickie!"

Sylar watched the kid hesitate but eventually he decided, that he was more scared of his friend Greg than he was of that stranger, that Sylar was to him. That would change soon though. Sylar reached out his hand.

Ricky saw it coming and when the telekinetic blow hit him, he was already trying to dodge sideways. He flew and astoundingly, managed it to land relatively well, in the corner. Sylar chuckled amused. Well done, kiddo. Not too bad.

The sound of a switchblade snapping out, made him turn back to Greg. The boy looked furious, be it about the incompetence of his friends or the fact that Sylar was still not even batting an eye was unclear. But his next intention was. He yelled, lunging forward.

Sylar was about to TK him away, when someone jumped at him from behind, trying to choke him. It all happened so fast, he had no time to react, until he felt the warm liquid running down his neck. But the blood was not his own.

The arm around his throat loosened at once and the boy in his back started choking. His hand clung to his throat and to the knife that was sticking out of the side of his neck. Sylar watched him stumble backwards, until his back hit the wall and he sank down. Then he remembered Greg.

Sylar raised his hand and pushed him off his feet, to the ground. Idiot.

The third boy rushed to his injured friend, gasping frantically, panicking. The blood was still flooding out of his neck, far too quickly.

"Greg!" the boy shouted, almost crying. "Dammit, dude, do something."

Greg went to them, his eyes never leaving Sylar.

"You should see to get him to a hospital." Sylar said at last. "If you´re quick, he might make it. Forget about me. It´s not worth it."

Greg glared at him, and Sylar could see clearly how much those words had challenged him once again. In a quick move, he grabbed the handle of his knife and actually pulled it out of his friend´s neck, to attack again. Sylar was so startled, he almost forgot to raise his hand and throw him back. Almost.

While Greg was groaning about the bruises he´d get the next day, his friend choked on his own blood, dying of the wound Greg had caused him. Sylar watched the second boy freaking out about what had just happened. He could barely believe it himself. What the heck was wrong with these kids?

He stared at Greg, who was lying on the ground, glaring at him hatefully, and had to restrain himself from reaching out his hand again, for more than just a blow. Eventually he turned around and just left, quickly, before things got even more out of control. One dead boy was already enough.

**...**

He halted in his speech, to look at the man before him, estimating his reaction. But Mohinder didn´t react. Yet. He didn´t say anything, not one word, just looked back at him. As if taking his time to decide what he wanted to think altogether, the uncertainty so obvious in his eyes.

"I decided to drive out here." Sylar went on. "To finally do what I came for."

"Which was?"

For a long moment Sylar didn´t respond, only held that waiting stare.

"What do you think it was?" he asked, eventually. "No, don´t say it. Just let me finish."

And once again, Mohinder just waited, listening to what would come next. Sylar took a breath.

"I came here to find Alice." he revealed, at last. "Not to kill her. You told me about her. And after you … invited me to leave …"

"I didn´t invite you to leave." Mohinder interrupted him, almost fiercely. "I just said, I couldn´t let you do what you wanted to do."

"You had no idea what I wanted to do." Sylar cried, defensively.

"You said yourself that you couldn´t guarantee for anything." was the retort. "So don´t blame me for how things went down. To run away was your idea."

Sylar didn´t give another response, just gritted his teeth, trying not to shout again.

"As I said." he forced the words out. "I wanted to find Alice. To talk to her. To maybe find a way to help her."

Mohinder raised an eyebrow at him. "So you´re a humanitarian now? Very convenient."

"I wanted to prove something."

"And what was that?"

"That I could still do it. That I could still do the right thing, control my hunger. Even without you."

A surprised frown appeared on Mohinder´s forehead.

"Only that I didn´t even get to Coyote Sands." Sylar went on. "These two … boys, caught up with me. At that ravine, they literally forced me into a standoff." He snorted, recalling it. "Like you know it from a movie. Two cars, heading for each other, daring the other one to avoid first."

"Did you do it?"

"Of course not. I hit the breaks as soon as I realized what he was doing. Tried to stop him with telekinesis but that car is just … heavy. Did you ever try to stop a truck that runs full speed?"

**...**

He could almost feel it, as if he´d touched the hood of the Dodge with his palm. A pressure that came from that fast approaching vehicle, heavy and sudden. And even though he managed to slow the damn thing down, it still crashed into his own hood, shoving his rental backwards violently. The glass shattered and pierced into his skin, his head got thrown onto the steering wheel and he was pretty sure he heard something snap in the back of his neck, which was probably the reason why he felt so dizzy all the sudden.

It did´t last long, but it was enough for them to get out of their car and to his side, without him noticing. When he moved his head to glare at them, Rickie skipped back in pure shock. Greg on the other hand didn´t. Instead he reached for the grenade belt of his friend – he looked so ridiculous with it – and pulled one of them out. Before Sylar even knew what was happening, the thing went flying at him.

He had no idea how he managed it to get out of the car before it went up in flames, but his instincts must have kicked in just in time, to let him end up on the ground instead of in a burning car.

Another grenade went flying at him, but this time Sylar deflected it, sending it away to explode at a rock instead of his face. The two boys flinched and took cover.

When Greg´s glare met Sylar´s again, he was fuming. Within a heartbeat he was back in his car, the motor roaring. And if Sylar had needed only one more second to realize what he was up to, he would have stared into the headlights like a deer until he ran him over.

But he didn´t need that second anymore. He reached out his hand before the car even started moving, and this time his shove was faster than the horsepower of the truck.

Sylar could see Greg´s face, surprised and royally pissed off, only for a second before he shoved the Dodge to the side and it slipped over the edge of the ravine. For a moment it was sliding, and then Sylar heard a crash. The Dodge stopped sliding. It was stuck.

"Greeeeeg!" Richie shouted and ran for the ravine. Halfway there his eyes met Sylar´s and he stopped dead in his tracks. Five seconds of stare were enough to send him swirling around and running away in the other direction.

Sylar looked after him, until he vanished behind a rock, and set off the ground, to land on said rock. He couldn´t spot Ricky anymore though. Beneath him the cracking sounds of the burning car mixed with the roaring of the Dodge´s motor. Greg was trying to rear back up the slope. Unsuccessfully. The car was stuck on a rock. A small one. It would withstand a while but not much longer if Sylar would help it a little. Just one tiny shove with his mind and that truck would rumble down the ravine for good.

He raised his hand, aiming for that truck, with its spinning wheels and whining motor. So helpless and at his mercy. Right now he had the life of this boy in the palm of his hand. A boy with a very tempting ability, one that he certainly didn´t deserve.

And then Sylar realized what he was doing, what he was feeling, coming up from deep inside of him, from a place he´d tried to forget once. A darkness that he´d promised to fight, not to indulge.

Again the motor was whining loudly, the wheels spinning unsuccessfully in the dirt.

Sylar threw a glance at his burning car. Useless. It was destroyed beyond repair and wouldn´t bring him anywhere. But he had to go. Before he lost it. This boy was just too tempting to not to kill him. Too easy to kill if Sylar really wanted it. And he wanted. Badly.

So he tore his eyes away from the Dodge and took off the ground as fast as he could, flying away from that place, before he could change his mind again.

**...**

Mohinder regarded him in silent contemplation, estimating. "You didn´t see that there was a car heading for you?" he asked.

Sylar needed a moment to understand the meaning of this question. "You were there?"

Mohinder made a face, as if unsure if he could believe this reaction to be true. But he didn´t say anything.

"What did you do next?" he then asked. "How did you get to the mountain?"

"First I flew here." Sylar told him, rolling his eyes around to indicated the barrack, the camp. "To get my thoughts back in order. To … calm down. I figured that when they found _me_, it was just a matter of time before they´d run into Alice." He ignored the raised brows of the scientist. "I didn´t want to find out what would happen then." he said. "After what you told me about her."

**...**

It was the reasonable thing to head for the mountains first. He had no idea where else to start and from up there he might be able to see something. Maybe she really was there. Didn´t people always hide in the mountains when they didn´t want to be found?

He landed on a high spot, almost at the top of the mountain, and looked around. The day was cast over, unusual for the desert. It didn´t change the heat but the light over the plain was dark and depressing. A fact that made the heat feel even worse, oppressive. A few more hours he guessed, before the sun would set, to let night take over the land. And the cold with it.

He sighed. Maybe he should head back to the town, to the motel he´d stayed in. Without even a car, he wouldn´t last long out here. The cold of the nights was bad in town but it would be devastating out here. And the way things looked he wouldn´t find Alice Shaw any time soon.

Let´s face it, friend. Your plan got screwed. Royally screwed. Why do you still keep going through with it? It´s over. Just go home.

But that was exactly the point wasn´t it? To what home? He didn´t have one. Not anymore. He was out here, on his own, and it was more than symbolic that his first target had been a desert like this. Empty and dead. A real hell right here on earth. Only that there was no fire here that could clean his soul from his sins. Only the heat of the burning sun. A sun that was now hidden behind thick gray clouds, as if the sky tried to mirror his frustration.

Sylar frowned, looking at this sky. It was really weird, wasn´t it? A weather like this? Those clouds hadn´t been there a few hours ago. It was unusual enough to see the sky over a desert cast over but that fast?

Alice.

That´s what she did, wasn´t it? Controlling the weather? She must have done this. And that meant she must be close. Maybe close enough to still find her. Sylar felt his heart beating faster in anticipation. And that was the moment when he saw the dust trail, heading for the mountain.

A car. A big one. And a second one following right behind. He just couldn´t believe it. These two idiots weren´t just chasing after him, ignoring all reasonable behavior, they´d also brought reinforcement.

"So now it´s getting ridiculous." he murmured to himself.

But if it was the way they wanted it, so be it. He was sick of turning away and run as if he was afraid of them. Greg probably still though he could get the better of him, encouraged by Sylar´s self discipline that he´d managed so far. But that was over now. If that kid refused to learn the right lesson on his own, Sylar would gladly teach it to him. It was about time anyway. No more remorse. He practically asked him to get killed, so why should he refuse that wish?

**...**

"And that´s when you decided to kill them." Mohinder interrupted the speech.

Sylar halted, hesitantly. "Maybe. I hadn´t decided."

"To me it sounds as if you decided."

"But I hadn´t. Okay? I just wanted them off my case. What would you have done?"

"So you´re truly just the misunderstood party in all of this, aren´t you?"

Sylar could only stare at him, totally taken aback. "You really don´t want to believe me, do you?" he asked.

"I used to believe you far too easily over the years." Mohinder retorted. "Allow me to have my doubts."

"Why should I lie about what happened?"

"Why?" Mohinder coughed out a laugh. "Why! Are you serious? Because you´re you."

"I´m not a liar."

"No. You´re a killer. You might believe that you can fight it. But you are too easily deceived by your own imagination. And you deceive other people just the same, maybe without even realizing it, convincing them about the same delusion you make up for yourself. Because that´s the only way, you can have a relationship with anyone. It was that way with my father and it was that way with everybody you were convinced to be close to over the years. Peter, Angela Petrelli, Claire … Juliet. You kept telling yourself stories over stories, about a better life, about a special purpose, fate that had called you. Nothing of this was real. You …"

"Are you so different then?" Sylar burst out at last, shouting in the doctor´s face. "Look at yourself and tell me that you see the world totally realistic, without clouded judgment."

He looked into the shocked face before him and had to laugh, bitterly.

"Poor Mohinder." he spoke. "Always carrying the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. Don´t you? Tell me you don´t believe you are responsible for everyone that lives. Tell me you don´t think you have to save them all, preferably from me. As if you were the only one who actually could save the world from this monster. Tell me you don´t think that. Because that´s the reason why you let Bennet assign you with watching me. That´s why you came back to America in the first place when he called you for help. Because you thought no one else could do this. And this is the reason why you´re here now. Because you think you have to save the world … from me. Am I right?"

He gave Mohinder time to answer his question. And it was obvious that he needed that time, to get over the shock.

"Yes." he managed at last, flabbergasted by what he´d heard.

Sylar exhaled, finally releasing the tension and nodded. "Yes." he repeated.

It wasn´t that he hadn´t known he was right. But hearing it from Mohinder himself, admitting it at last …

"Well." he said, dismissively. "I have news for you. You´re not the center of the universe, doctor."

And with that he just left, out of the door, because he couldn´t stand to be in that barrack any longer. With him. He needed some fresh Mohinder-free air to clear his mind, and the anger in his head. But of course the doctor would not give him that. Only a second after Sylar´d left, he heard him follow and a moment later his arm was grabbed and pulled back, stopping him.

"Where are you going?" Mohinder demanded to know.

Sylar glared at him, warningly. "I´m taking a walk." he said. "Doctor."

He yanked his arm away, to make a point. And for a moment it seemed that his message had been understood. And then there was the sound of a motor, one that sounded only too familiar by now.

The two of them turned around, to see the Dodge appearing at the corner of the farthest barrack. It was driving slowly, almost sneaky, until the boy behind the steering wheel saw them.

Sylar reached out a hand, the moment the tires started squeaking, and shoved the Dodge aside, a smile playing on his lips. His shove sent the car spinning, spitting sand. The window of the drivers side was open. Good. Sylar prepared himself. And then Mohinder grabbed his arm and forced it down.

"Stop it." he demanded.

Sylar could only stare in disbelieve. "You heard any of what I told you earlier?" he cried.

"You claim that you can fight it." the scientist recalled. "Then prove it."

Sylar shook his head, irritated. He hadn´t realized it until this very second. But now he saw it. Again. What he´d been about to do, what he´d wanted to do. God, was it already that bad? He looked into the dark eyes of the man before him, accusing, warning, understanding, all at once. And from the other side he heard a door getting opened.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the movement, when Greg wound up and threw something. Sylar had only enough time to swirl around.

The grenade exploded barely ten feet away from them, the shock wave still strong enough to blow them off their feet. And for the next ten seconds, Sylar could not see anything but flying dirt and flames.


	8. I Follow You Down

**I follow you down (through the eye of the storm)**

Sylar´s back was hurting, from the impact, from landing on a pointy stone. But not as bad as his head was hurting, his ears ringing. Still he forced his eyes open, knowing that there´d be few to no time to react before they´d be at them. And he was right. Just as he looked up, Greg was throwing another grenade.

Sylar made himself raise his arm, collecting all his willpower to telekinetically deflect the explosive device. It took a turn only a meter from him and Mohinder and exploded on the wall of the barack, tearing a hole into it.

Greg and Rickie ducked at the unexpected direction of the explosion. A moment later the increasing wind drew their attention. And not only theirs.

Sylar looked up at the sky, clouding over very fast now, not just gray but black. The wind became stronger with each second, drowning them all in a downright sandstorm. Alice Shaw was officially pissed. They´d damaged her home, as crappy and old as it might have been already, but it was hers nonetheless.

Sylar glanced at Mohinder, beside him. He was lying on his stomach, not moving. Again the wind got stronger. And so did Sylar´s anger. He turned back to the kids, to Greg, who was still eying him as if trying to decide if he should attack now or at a better time. But alone the fact that he was still thinking about attacking, made Sylar boil with rage. He reached out his hand and grabbed the boy´s throat, choking him.

Greg gasped. Or tried to. But Sylar didn´t intent to let him breath again. This time his patience was gone. And then all the sudden, a bolt of lightning crushed out of the sky, hitting the ground right between him and the boy. A silent flash of bright blinding light, so fast that Sylar wasn´t sure if it had been even there. His vision was blurred, so it had to be there.

Greg, relieved of Sylar´s grip, stumbled to the ground, looking up to the sky with big eyes. And then the thunder crashed over them, loud and devastating, as if the rage of a god had been unleashed. Or better yet, a goddess.

A brief moment of pure silence settled, the wind gone and no lightnings or thunder anywhere. Sylar held his breath, his eyes searching Mohinder´s form, briefly, as if for reassurance. And then he could feel it coming. Only a second before it actually started.

When the rain started falling, it was a surprise. But surprise became terror as soon as he realized that this rain was not just rain. It was a curtain of heavy and almost raging drops, so much of it, it was as if the air was filled with water, threatening to drown them all in the open.

Sylar noticed from far away that a figure (Greg) struggled to his feet behind that curtain of rain and ran away. But Greg was not his concern right now. The man he had to take care of was lying on the ground next to him, unconscious. And the ground he lay on, was turning liquid very fast.

He crawled over to him, through the mud, and grabbed him, turning him around. The rain hitting his face made Mohinder flinch and open his mouth to breath in. Only that instead of air, he got water, in his mouth and nose and when his body started to fight that threat for his lungs, heaving and shaking, he instinctively rolled into the only available protection from this heavy rain. Sylar´s body, that leaned over him.

"We need to get out of here." Sylar shouted into his ear, his hands clinging into the fabric of Mohinder´s shirt, dragging him up to his feet.

Mohinder was hanging on him like dead weight, but somehow he managed it to drag him along, through that liquid air, until they reached the truck. Sylar heaved him into the passenger seat, climbing inside right after him, into the driving seat. Closing the door was a hard piece of work against the force of the rain, but somehow he made it.

He almost feared the motor wouldn´t come up, that it had been drowned by now, but the engine started to run as soon as he turned the ignition. Sylar didn´t wait any longer, to think about the boys, Alice or anything at all. He just hit the accelerator and drove, through the baracks and out of the camp called Coyote Sands.

**...**

Shawn almost couldn´t believe his eyes. Not only that there had a rainstorm appeared at the horizon, over the desert for god´s sake. Not over the whole desert though, only over that camp, he and Mohinder had stopped at earlier. But rain per square meter was only one thing. But then a tornado came down, right out of the sky, before their hoods as if it came jumping out of the sky. And it was heading straight for them.

Shawn immediately hit the brakes, only a moment before the twister was at them, swirling them around, like in a carousel. Behind him, Gus and Jules started to scream, almost as loud as he did. Peter was probably already dead, Shawn figured, because if he was alive, he´d scream too. But when the car stopped spinning, and the storm was gone, past them, the first thing he heard, was a groan that sounded exactly like Peter.

"Wow."

And wasn´t he right. Shawn sat behind the wheel, heart pounding, head still spinning, and looked at the hood of the X-Trail, that just stopped spinning itself. He could see Lassiter through the windshield, shaken up, almost paralyzed and somehow that sight send Shawn´s neurons into a literal explosion.

"Woooo." he cried out, making everyone in the car with him jump. "Yehaaa. That was aaaawsome." He jumped out of the car. "Did you see that? Did. You. See that? Wooohoooooo!"

Ahead Lassiter and Bennet came climbing out of the X-Trail, closely followed by Hiro and Nathan, all of them moving carefully as if unsure if the ground would not move away from under their feet. Shawn on the other hand only wished he could fly like Nathan and Peter.

"That´s the most awesome thing I ever saw, dude." he shouted.

"You must be out of your damn mind, Shawn." Gus shouted back at him. "We almost died."

"Don´t be ridiculous." Shawn laughed. "We were perfectly save. This car can take anything."

"Are you crazy?" Jules cried. "That was a tornado, Shawn."

"I know."

"That was not a normal tornado." Bennet objected, startling Juliet and Gus with the calm tone of his voice.

"He´s right." Peter agreed. "That was Alice."

"And the way this went down, she must be angry about something." his brother added.

"Or scared." Bennet deducted. "Just like _you_ guys scared her."

Lassiter understood the hint instantly. "Sylar." he grumbled.

"Most likely."

"Son of a bitch."

Bennet glanced over the plain, to where Coyote Sands lay, to the rainstorm that was still there. It seemed to decrease now though. The lightnings stopped flashing and the sound of rushing water, carried to them by the wind, got quieter.

"I think we can risk it to go there." Bennet found, eventually.

"Yes, man." Shawn agreed, enthusiastically. "Let´s do this."

"You need to calm down, Spencer." Lassiter said, before heading for the X-Trail.

"You need to calm up some." Shawn replied, still laughing.

"You´re not making any sense, Shawn." Gus mentioned and of course got ignored.

"Come on, dude." Shawn cried, jumping back in the car just like Lassie and the others.

The X-Trail started and passed him, heading for the camp, and Shawn´s sense for competition and car races was awaken.

"Come on, guys." he urged the others. "We catch them." He turned the keys, shouting exhilarated: "Let´s get ready to rambooooo! Wooohoooooo!"

The car didn´t start. The motor was coughing and whining, and wouldn´t come up, no matter how much he tried. And damn, he did try. Really.

"Let it be, Shawn." Gus said at last. "That car is not gonna run anymore. It´s wrecked."

"Stupid." Shawn spat, stubbornly and kept trying. "This is just some sand in the pipe. It´ll come."

Gus only rolled his eyes. "I´ll walk." he decided. "Juliet? Peter?"

"Shawn?" Juliet asked but Shawn would not give up. "Forget it, please. Maybe if we all squeeze together, we can fit in the X-Trail."

"Jules, believe me. This car is going to run again. It just needs some time and a gentle hand."

He turned the key again to prove his point and once again only managed to let it whine.

"I see you guys at the camp." Peter said, when he had enough and took off the ground to fly there.

"Great." Gus exclaimed. "Shawn. You can stay here and keep trying if you want. I. Will walk now. Juliet. You´re welcome to join me."

The junior detective looked after him, how he walked off, with his head raised, before glancing at Shawn again, tired and exhausted.

"Shawn, please come with us." she begged.

"I´ll follow you soon." he said and tried the motor again. It kept whining, helplessly. "In a minute. You´ll see."

Juliet closed her eyes and nodded. "The camp is right over there." she reminded Shawn. "Don´t miss it."

Eventually she turned around and followed Gus.

**...**

The rain, pelting down on the windshield was still heavy and thick, making it hard to see anything at all. Not even the headlights were any good and the wheels were having trouble getting through the thick mud, the ground had turned into by now. Lightnings were still flashing but at least they´d gotten less and less these last few minutes. Minutes that felt like hours.

Eventually Sylar stopped the car and killed the engine. There was no sense in driving any further.

Beside him Mohinder groaned. "Where are we?"

"I don´t know."

"Then why do you stop here?"

"Did you look outside?"

Mohinder only sank back in his seat, groaning again. His hand lay on his left shoulder.

"What´s the matter?" Sylar asked, concerned. "You´re hurt?"

Mohinder grabbed his shoulder a little tighter and decided to better let it be. "It´s dislocated." he revealed and when Sylar attempted to reach out for him, he skipped back. "No, don´t."

"Mohinder, I can fix it." Sylar insisted. "Let me help you."

The geneticist gritted his teeth but didn´t object again, probably out of exhaustion. Sylar shifted in his seat, preparing, to relocate the joint.

"That´s going to hurt." he admitted and Mohinder nodded, closing his eyes in preparation. Sylar hesitated. "You want something to bite on?"

"Oh, shut up." Mohinder spat. "Just … do it."

Sylar smirked, and pushed the shoulder as fast as he could, forcing the joint back into its place. Mohinder cried out in pain, doubling over and Sylar let go of him, hissing in sympathy. Eventually Mohinder stopped wailing, breathing deeply against the pain, his face still between his knees.

"You son of a bitch." he hissed.

Sylar didn´t respond, just watched the scientist breathing. He carefully reached out a hand to lay it on Mohinder´s back.

"You okay?" he asked and got a quick fist in his face, so unexpected that he wondered why his nose was bleeding. Mohinder looked at him for a moment, shaking his head, before he went back to himself and his hurting shoulder.

"God dammit."

Sylar took a minute to let his nose heal, until he could breath through it again. He took a long deep breath in, to test it and when he found it was good, he smiled, chuckled.

"Man, I missed that."

Next to him Mohinder started laughing, leaning back in his seat and of course Sylar had to laugh too, joining him in this laughing fit. This situation was just too typical for them to not to laugh about it. Hadn´t there been a songtext once or something similar that said, it´s only real if you can feel the pain? God, how true. And thinking that he had to laugh again. Man, what a joke. If they´d tell this to anyone, no one would believe it.

Eventually, when they´d laughed enough, they just sat there, in stillness for a while, only watching the rain pelting on the windshield. It was strange but the sound was actually quiet soothing. Mohinder threw a glance at Sylar. A glance that was answered, equally, with no urge to speak a single word. But of course Mohinder had to.

"All right, let´s hear it."

"Hear what?"

"The lecture? That I should have listened to you. That I should have believed you. That I was an idiot to trust these guys."

"Seems I don´t have to tell you anymore."

Mohinder grinned, and Sylar reached out a hand to pad his shoulder. When his touch was answered with a wince and groan, he quickly pulled his hand back, hissing in sympathy.

"Sorry."

Mohinder hit his head against the seat, eyes closed, until the pain subsided. "Why is it that we can never spend a normal day together?" he asked at last.

Sylar only chuckled, glancing at him. "Maybe we´re just not meant for normal, Mohinder."

The genetically enhanced man in the passenger seat, met his gaze, equally, and smiled, involuntarily.

"Yeah." he agreed. "Probably not."

**...**

By the time they reached the camp, the rain they´d seen from far away, had stopped. But it must have been heavy, like really heavy, because when Lassiter steered the X-Trail through the baracks, the wheels were sliding, and when they stopped at last and stepped out, his foot sank into the mud, wetting his socks inside the shoe.

He cried out in disgust.

"Crap. What the hell?"

Around the car he heard similar reactions from the rest of his traveling group.

"Well." Noah said at last. "That´s what happens when nature is out of control."

"Or under control." Nathan added, rightfully.

Noah nodded. "Split up." he urged. "We need to find Sylar. Quick."

The group separated, each of them heading into another direction. Walking was not the easiest thing, and certainly not pleasant either, sinking into mud with half sneakers never was, but the thought of Sylar hiding here somewhere encouraged them all to try their best.

Only a moment after Lassiter vanished around a corner, Peter reached the place, landing beside the X-Trail. He looked down on his feet, making a face as disgusted as the others had done it before, and raised one foot to shake it. It didn´t help much.

"Crap." he mumbled and decided to ignore it as best as he could, looking around for the others.

Someone approached him and he turned around. But before he had a chance to ask, what they´d found, he got something over his head and his vision blackened.

"What are you doing?" Rickie cried, staring at his friend in shock.

"This sucker stole my car." Greg hissed, throwing down the bar he´d just smacked over Peter´s head. "We´re going to get him." he stated, no argument allowed. "So get in."

Rickie obeyed, and as soon as he and Greg were in the car, they started the motor and raced off, spitting mud at the guys that came running for them.

"They´ll kick us in the ass when they get us." Rickie whined.

"_If_ they get us." Greg replied, smirking confidently. "Besides. You heard what they said. They´re after that sucker too. We´ll probably do them a favor if we take him down."

Rickie thought this over for a moment and came to the conclusion that his friend was probably right.

"Yeah." he laughed, confidently. "Let´s kick his ass."

"Check the glove compartment." Greg instructed and Rickie did. As expected he found something, something really helpful. A gun. Rickie smiled.

"Let´s hunt us a sucker." Greg said.

**...**

At last, Shawn had managed it to get the car started. He´d almost reached Coyote Sands, when Jules and Gus came up, waving for him to stop.

"Hey." he called out of the window. "What´s the matter?"

"Better don´t drive in there." Juliet told him. "The ground is liquid. You would get stuck with that car."

Shawn glanced at the ground and saw that she was right. Both of them had already ruined their shoes.

"Wow." he exclaimed, getting out. "Must have been one hell of a rain."

"That´s an understatement." Gus agreed. "It must have been like Noah´s Flood."

Shawn frowned, looking at him. "You think Bennet had anything to do with that?"

"What?"

"What?"

"I was talking about the bible, Shawn."

Again Shawn frowned. "I didn´t figure Bennet for churchgoer."

"Shawn."

"Could you guys knock it off." Juliet asked, exhausted. "Peter got attacked." she informed Shawn. "And the boys you met earlier, stole the X-Trail. That´s why it´s good you brought the limo. We might need it now."

**...**

They´d stopped trying to reel the car free about ten minutes ago, realizing that the wheels would not find a grip in that deep mud. They´d only make it worse until the car would be stuck in that mud beyond any chance of ever getting out again. So they were now standing before the hood, digging their feet into the ground and shoved the car back and forth, rhythmically, to help the wheels find enough ground to get rolled out of that puddle. A task that was quiet some piece of work with Mohinder's second arm in a sling.

"Would you mind helping me a little bit more?" he groaned.

"I do what I can." Sylar replied, shoving both with his hands and his mind. "That mud is drying if you haven´t noticed."

"I noticed." Mohinder pressed out through gritted teeth. Eventually he had to let go of the car, simply because air became an issue.

The car reeled back a few inches and Sylar used the momentum and pushed again. It helped to move the Dodge about another few centimeters. Mohinder wiped some sweat off his face with his good hand. So did Sylar. Unbelievable. This was the first time since he´d gotten here, that he was sweating during the night. The other nights he´d been freezing. Now he wasn´t.

He glanced at Mohinder, beside him. He was panting. They both were.

"I meant it, you know." Sylar mentioned out of the blue.

"What?" Mohinder asked, not really interested.

"What I said earlier." Sylar said. "I did miss you."

The other man gave him a strange look, one brow raised.

"It´s not meant as a joke." Sylar insisted.

The strange look was still there. "You do know that you sound like in a soap opera."

Sylar couldn´t help but help but laughed. "So what? I still mean it."

Mohinder made a sound, coming from deep in his throat and turned back to the Dodge to keep shoving.

"I know." he grunted without looking at Sylar and then pushed.

He could only use one arm, the one that was not hurting and of course it was useless to even try. But stubborn as he was, he still tried. Until Sylar finally used his telekinesis again, to help him. Their combined forces, along with the former work they´d done, finally made the car move, and a minute later, it was free, standing on more steady ground again.

Sylar glanced at Mohinder, waiting for him to say something. But nothing came. Instead the scientist raised his brows, asking.

"What?"

"You´re supposed to say it back now." Sylar told him.

Again Mohinder raised his brows. "I am?"

Sylar let out a laugh, through his teeth. He just couldn´t believe it. "Why is it that you can never admit to something?"

"To what would I admit?"

"That you´re human, for example."

"I do admit that I´m human."

"Then you can admit that you missed me too."

"You know, I can´t say that."

"Why not?"

"Because it´s been barely two weeks, Sylar."

"Since we last saw each other, yes. What I´m talking about is this. Talking like that. Arguing like that. I mean … that´s us."

"Us."

"Yes. What else could we be?"

Mohinder shrugged, indifferently. "Opponents?" he offered a possibility. "Foes? Mortal enemies? You pick one. There´re a lot of possibilities what we could be."

Sylar´s mouth itched into a smirk. He shook his head, chuckling.

"Don´t you remember?" he asked. "What we did. The people we used to help. That was something good. Don´t throw that away, Mohinder. Not like this. We could still go back there."

He looked into the face of the man before him, waiting for his response. Only that he never got to hear it. Because in that moment, they heard the motor of a car approaching. A Nissan X-Trail, the one Mohinder had driven when he and Shawn had come out here. But the assumption that it was Shawn driving the car, was soon corrected. Because Shawn wouldn´t have increased the speed like a maniac as soon as he spotted them.

"It´s them again." Sylar rasped, angrily. "That´s it. I´ll end this ridiculous game once and for all."

He turned to face them, preparing to flip the car around, only with a move of his fingers. But Mohinder stopped him, once again.

"Don´t." he cried, surprisingly calm. "You´d kill them." When Sylar glanced at him, he shook his head, persuasively. "Don´t."

Sylar gritted his teeth, but lowered his hand. When he looked back at the car, the window was open, Greg hanging out, one hand still on the steering wheel. In the other hand he held a gun. Sylar heard the shot and the same instant he felt the impact in his shoulder, that threw him back, to the ground. Behind him, glass was shattering. The Dodge. Mohinder took cover behind it, just in time to avoid the bullet that hit the drivers side.

Sylar struggled back to his feet, or was in the process to do so, when the X-Trail was already at him, hitting him full speed.

He had no idea how far he´d flown, but he must have blacked out for a moment, because when he came to, he only saw the red back lights rushing for him, barely a second before the car ran over him, it´s full weight crushing his rips and legs, throwing him around to roll in the dirt.

Once again he couldn´t tell how much time passed before his healing powers finally kicked in. As less as he could tell if the things he saw, were real or just a vision. He thought he saw Mohinder running for the X-Trail, only to stop right in it´s path, as if waiting for it to hit him too. Sylar tried to move his head, only to find that he couldn´t. Not yet. And then he saw Mohinder jump, just a second before the X-Trail could run him over.

It all happened so fast, Sylar only heard the squeaking tires, and a moment later the shout of the boy, who got dragged out of the car through the open window. Another shot went off and Sylar´s head jerked. His cuts were closing themselves, quicker with each passing second. He needed to wake up.

Another shout was audible. His bones melted back together, hardening their substance. Tires were sliding over sand, squeaking lowly. Sylar opened his eyes, and sat up. The X-Trail had stopped only a few feet away from him, Mohinder behind the wheel.

"Blow him up!" he heard Greg shout. "Do it!"

Sylar swirled around, just in time to see the grenade, flying at them, and moved his arm, deflecting it. It exploded safely away from them, it´s echo carried over the plain by the wind, for the people in Coyote Sands to hear it. The flames of the explosion torched the side of the Dodge.

"Noooo!" Greg yelled, furious.

Above their heads, deep thunder started to rumble again.

"Sylar!" Mohinder shouted, making the killer turn back. "Get in!"

Still too surprised to even wonder what had happened, Sylar jumped up and into the passenger seat, the wheels of the car already spinning.


	9. What Could Have Been

**What could have been**

"What are you doing?" Rickie cried, when Greg climbed behind the steering wheel of his wasted Dodge, starting the motor with an expression as if he wanted to rip something out of the panel.

"This asshole destroyed my car." Greg barked. "What do you think I´ll do?"

"But …" Rickie hadn´t felt that lost, since … since he´d seen their buddy Mikey die, from a gaping wound in his neck, caused by Greg´s switchblade. "Shouldn´t we rather …?" he tried to speak reasonably for a change but Greg, once again, had other plans.

"Listen, Ricky." he snapped. "You can come or you can go back home. Maybe your daddy will be glad to see you for a change. I´m going to get this sucker."

Rickie looked into the hard eyes of his friend, wondering why he´d ever been friends with this guy in the first place, and wanted nothing more than to sit down and cry. But Greg would never look at him again if he did this, of course, so that was out of the question. Because Greg would never cry. Not even now. And neither would Rickie.

Eventually, after hesitating for what felt like an eternity, Rickie made his feet move and climbed into the passenger seat. Some things were just not meant to be, and he was never meant to speak against something that Greg had set his mind on.

Greg pushed down the accelerator, racing for the mountain to chase after the X-Trail.

**...**

Bennet came back to the gathering, the binoculars dangling from his hand.

"And?" Lassiter asked.

"I didn´t see much." the Company man answered. "But there was a car at the far end of this plain, over there at the mountain. I think it was the Dodge."

"Sylar." Lassiter grumbled and Bennet nodded, glancing down on the still unconscious Peter, bedded somewhat sufficiently on the stairs of the barack, to keep him out of the mud.

"We should go after him." he decided at last, and this time it was the detective who nodded. The two of them turned around at once, heading for the limousine, Shawn had parked outside the camp.

"I´ll go with you." Juliet told them, making Lassiter glance back at her, briefly. He didn´t object.

"Jules, wait." Shawn cried, hurrying after her.

"Shawn, you stay here." she told him firmly, before he could say anything. "Please, just this time, do what I ask you to." And her gaze was way too serious and pleading for him to argue with her.

"Under one condition."

"What?"

"That you stay save."

The police detective smiled, warmly. "I just need to make sure this doesn´t get out of control." she explained herself, not saying out loud Lassiter´s and Bennet´s names. But it wasn´t necessary for her to say it, for Shawn to understand it.

"O´Hara!" Lassiter called, urging her to move and she flinched.

"I´m coming."

She placed a quick kiss on Shawn´s lips, before turning around and hurrying after her partner, to get in the car.

**...**

The wind had gotten stronger once again. Sylar was glancing out the window, unable to draw his eyes away from the storm that blustered out there. Mohinder was still driving, along the path that lead through the mountains and Sylar couldn´t help but wondered if Greg and his pal were stupid enough to still follow them. But then again … sure they were.

Halfway through a ravine-like passageway, the wind became so strong, it made them slow down. And then the tornado appeared before them, crossing the ravine like a pedestrian that crossed the street.

Mohinder hit the brakes, and the storm grabbed them. It spun the car around, crashing it against the wall, before moving on as if nothing had happened.

Afterwards the wind outside was gone and the remaining silence almost deafening. Sylar´s ears were ringing, not just from the collision his head had managed with the window. He glanced to his side … and his heart just about stopped. The scientist leaned against the window, neck bowed, eyes closed. He wasn´t moving.

"Mohinder!" Sylar grabbed him, frantically, and turned his head around, feeling his neck, scared of what he might feel under his fingertips. But the neck was intact and so was the head. As far as he could feel it, there wasn´t even blood.

Mohinder groaned, his eyes fluttering open and flinched away from Sylar´s hand on his forehead, hitting it away sluggishly, with the back of his hand.

"What are you doing?" he mumbled, irritated.

Sylar exhaled, not very coherent in those first seconds. "I don´t know." he managed. "For a second I thought …" He took a breath and shook his head, in a total lack of words.

Mohinder frowned, and decided he preferred not to ask. He dismissed the question, and looked around, out of the window.

"I guess we can be positive that Alice doesn´t want us to be here." he mentioned, rubbing his head. "This sure is no woman, you want to piss of."

His words, although obviously meant as a change of subject, had a very different effect on Sylar. Because they made him realize something, something he´d overlooked so far.

"She must know what happened." he cried and looked around. "She must be close." His heart was starting to beat faster in anticipation.

"You shouldn´t try to find her." Mohinder advised him, causing him to swirl back around to him, startled.

"Why not?"

"Because she doesn´t want to be found."

Sylar only stared at him, almost horrified. "How can you say that?" he cried. "I know she hurt you when you met her back then, but that´s no reason to …"

"This has nothing to do with it." Mohinder interrupted him. "But what do you think those storms are supposed to do? She wants to scare us away."

"Exactly. Because she´s scared. That´s why we need to find her. To take those fears away from her."

"You sound like a helpless do-gooder." Mohinder retorted. "This woman went to the desert for a reason."

"But … she´s alone out here." Sylar shook his head. "And she shouldn´t be. She´s a human being and as scared of being alone as everyone. She needs to know that there is hope for her, that she´s still human, no matter what powers she has and that someone will be there for her, to stand by her side and … and help her. Is that so hard to understand?"

Mohinder regarded him with a strange smile, playing on his lips. As if he was amused about something. Sylar was confused.

"Not at all." Mohinder answered him, at last, chuckling, and threw Sylar off balance for good.

"What?"

Mohinder only kept smiling, in that strange way, as if he saw him for the first time.

"Nothing." he shook his head. "How did I not know that about you?" he wondered, taking even the last bit of coherence that Sylar had still left. What the hell was this geneticist talking about? Know what?

A sound came up behind them, but this time it was not the wind. It was the sound of a motor. A second later they saw the headlights in the rearview mirror, at the far end of the ravine.

"You´ve got to be kidding me." Sylar blurred out and this time even Mohinder glared angrily into the mirror.

"I don´t believe it." he mumbled.

"Believe it. This guy just doesn´t …"

Mohinder started the motor, entering the gear abruptly.

"What are you doing?" Sylar cried.

"Driving."

And he did. Fast.

"What, from them?" Sylar cried, in disbelieve.

"Yes." was all Mohinder would say, no argument allowed. His gaze was affixed on the rearview mirror, watching how the Dodge gave chase. Seeing the look in his eyes, Sylar slowly began to understand.

"What are you up to?" he asked, watching Mohinder closely.

"Beating them with their own weapons." the scientist answered, still driving full speed. "It´s time to teach those suckers that they are fucking with the wrong guys."

**...**

Shawn was pacing, impatiently. The thunder in the distance had gotten worse since Jules had left with the two gunslingers, that were still chasing after the wrong guy. And considering what Mohinder had told him about this crazy chick living in this desert, he guessed that this rainstorm was not a good sign. Not at all.

At the barack, Peter groaned, rolling around on the stairs. Nathan grabbed his shoulders, to keep him from rolling off of them. The younger brother opened his eyes, and immediately closed them again, when the headache threatened to split his head.

"Dude, I can sympathize with that." Shawn assured him.

"What happened?" Peter wanted to know, massaging his forehead.

"You got your head whooped." Shawn answered. "That´s what happened."

"I noticed. But who …?"

"The two kids that already attacked Shawn." Nathan told him. "They stole the car."

"Exactly." Shawn cried. "And now Lassie and Bennet have taken the other one, heading out to shoot Sylar and we´re stuck here. But we´re not going to let them do that to us, do we? We´ll not stay here, while they make the worst mistake of their lives. Right? Peter?"

But Peter only looked at him, totally mystified, as if he had no idea what Shawn had just tried to tell him in such a clear way. His eyes wandered from Shawn to Gus and back to Shawn, asking for any kind of sign, so he could understand. But then his gaze jumped to something behind Shawn and his eyes went big. When Shawn and Gus turned around, they saw it too.

There was a huge storm, a downright tornado, at the horizon. Not the small one, that had spun their cars, but a real big one. In the dark of the night it got only illuminated by frequent bolts of lightning, flashing down from the sky. The storm was far away from them and it still looked frightening.

Peter jumped up and so did Shawn´s heart.

"Dude." he exclaimed. "Do you see that motherf …?"

"My god." Gus cried over him.

"That´s Alice." Peter cried and turned around to his brother. "We need to go there. We need to help."

"Right, dude." Shawn agreed. "Let´s go kick some asses."

"Wait. Just a second." Nathan demanded and faced his brother. "Pete, you just woke up. If you lose conscience while flying …"

"Don´t worry. I´m fine."

Nathan opened his mouth to object, but facing the determination in his brother´s eyes, he closed it again. Eventually he nodded. Shawn hit his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Okay." he cheered. "Then let´s …" But in this moment the two brothers had already taken off, ignoring him as if he weren´t even there.

"Wha …? That´s … That´s not what I meant!" he shouted after them. "Hey!" But of course they were gone. Shawn swirled around, to the next Special to address.

"Hiro!"

"You two should stay here." the teleporter said. "You´ll be save here."

"What?"

"You must be out of your damn mind." Gus cried. "You´ll not leave us here all alone, you hear me? We´re coming with you."

Shawn raised his brows, surprised that Gus had beat him to it. "You heard him." he told Hiro but Hiro shook his head.

"It´s too dangerous." he insisted. But Shawn insisted right back, grabbing his collar.

"Now you listen to me, dude. We will not let them do this to us, you hear me? Jules is over there too. And Lassie. We´ll go after them and we will face that storm, you got that, Hiro!"

Hiro skipped back a little, from that outburst, nodding obediently.

Shawn nodded too and took Gus´ arm.

"Go." he ordered and after a brief hesitation, Hiro closed his eyes.

**...**

Mohinder steered the car around the corner, almost racing out into the open space, up at the top of the mountain. Before he reached the other side, he spun the steering wheel and brought the car to a sliding stop. A strong but steady wind was blowing around the car.

Sylar glanced out the window, and gasped.

"Mohinder."

The scientist turned around, to see what he saw, and for a moment he froze. There was a new tornado in the distance over the plain. Not the one that had passed them earlier. This one was bigger. Way bigger.

"Should we break off?" Sylar asked.

Mohinder considered this, for a few seconds. But then he saw the shine of the headlights approaching them, wandering behind the rocks. Soon the Dodge would be here, at the corner they´d just passed themselves.

"No." he decided at last, his hands gripping the steering wheel tighter. "There´s no going back now."

Sylar smiled at him, radiantly. "I like the way you say that." he admitted and opened the door to get out. "Be careful."

"Make sure."

The door got thrown shut and Mohinder accelerated again, positioning the car as fast as he could, opposite of the entrance to this opening, where the Dodge would appear. He put out the lights.

**...**

Shawn only felt a soft wind on his face, when Hiro closed his eyes, to teleport them. But then they were at the bottom of the mountain, and the soft breeze became a raging storm, accelerating from zero to one hundred in only one second. He got immediately thrown off his feet. And not just him.

"Shaaaaawn!" Gus shouted, trying to grab something and if it was only sand.

Shawn tried the same, and somehow he managed it to get a rock between his hands. Gus gave up on the ground and grabbed him instead. Shawn dared to let go of the rock with one hand, to help his friend.

"You´ve got to hold onto something." Hiro cried beside them, holding to a rock as well.

"Good idea, dude." Shawn shouted. "I was thinking about not to do that."

After that the three of them were just holding on, for somewhat about an hour or so, until the storm finally subsided. Shawn gasped and pried his fingers off the rock. His eyes fell on his wristwatch and he almost couldn´t believe what he read there. That merely a minute had passed since all this had started. What? That was impossible.

He looked around, irritated. And spotted a dark shape, moving away, to vanish into the still swirling cloud of dust.

"Dude." he cried, pointing ahead.

When Hiro spotted the figure, he gasped and immediately struggled to his feet. "That´s Alice." he cried. "We need to get to her."

"What? Dude. That chick is the reason for this storm."

"He´s right." Gus shouted beside him. "I don´t think it´s a good idea to challenge her again. Remember last time!"

But Hiro was determined. "We need to make her understand that we´re not her enemies." he cried over his shoulder. "So she will stop the storm."

"Dude, that´s crazy." Shawn shouted.

"That´s more than crazy." Gus agreed. "That´s suicide."

"I´ll do it." Hiro insisted. "You can stay here. Where it is safe." And with that he was staggering away, leaning against the still blowing wind, to shield his eyes.

Shawn cursed and got up as well.

"Shawn." Gus shouted.

"We must stay together." he shouted back, already following Hiro into the dust cloud. He managed it to make a few more steps, before the force of the sand, blown in his direction, became too strong. He tried to look around, but Hiro was gone.

"Shawn!" Gus cried behind him, and Shawn forced himself to keep going. Eventually he came across a hole in the wall, a long crack, no, a ravine actually. Shawn immediately hurried inside, closely followed by Gus. The wind was still blowing around them but at least it was not that strong anymore.

"Dude." Gus coughed. "What are we doing now? We lost our jumper."

"We didn´t lose him, Gus." Shawn objected. "I´m sure he´s somewhere. Who knows, maybe he took that same passageway."

"Are you sure?"

Shawn glanced ahead deeper into the ravine. "Hirooo?" he called but got no answer. "Maybe he didn´t hear us." Outside the storm howled louder and louder. "We should check it out."

"No Shawn." Gus grabbed his arm. "What if this mountain comes down on us, while we´re in there?"

"Don´t be ridiculous." Shawn laughed but Gus was serious.

"Did you see what´s going on there?"

"That´s just wind, Gus. No storm can bring down a mountain. Besides. It´s better to be in here than out there." As if to prove him right, the storm increased its force even more. "Lassie and Jules could be on the other side." Shawn shouted over the noise. "I´ll go and check this passageway. You can stay here and guard the entrance."

"You must be out of your damn mind, Shawn. I´ll not stay behind alone, you hear me."

"Then you´ll have to come with me." Shawn turned around and just started walking, not looking back.

Gus cursed. "I´ll kill you, Shawn."

**...**

The Dodge reached the corner, at last, its headlights finally shining brightly into Mohinder´s eyes. It stopped, uncertain. They were probably wondering where they were. What they were up to. Mohinder decided to show them. He switched on his own headlights.

When his motor came to life, the Dodge roared as well, like an animal that answered the threatening snarl of another. And wasn´t that exactly what this was? Greg was so predictable. But this time he would cut into his own flesh with that.

Mohinder accelerated, exponentially, wheels spinning and spitting dirt and almost instantly the Dodge did the same. Predictable indeed.

The two cars raced at each other, a literal standoff, just like in the movies, each of them daring the other one to chicken first. And of course it was Mohinder, who did his opponent the favor. Only a second before it was too late. He steered right, abruptly, and avoided the hood of the truck only about a few inches. He could have steered left too, of course. But he didn´t. Because if he´d done that, the Dodge wouldn´t have steered the way he´d wanted it.

Now Mohinder hit the brakes and the X-Trail started sliding on the sandy ground, dangerously close to the edge. Still it stopped in time, far too suddenly to be caused only by the force of the brakes. Mohinder´s chin hit the steering wheel, but compared to a dive down the whole height of the mountain, ala Thelma and Louise, it was nothing.

Before he even had a chance his door was opened.

"You okay?" Sylar cried.

Mohinder still felt dizzy after that stop, but then he heard the sound of squeaking tires and sliding ground, metal crashing against rocks, shrieking and cracking, and he was fully awake again. The two of them turned around to see the Dodge hanging halfway over the edge, just the way it would have happened to Mohinder, without Sylar´s help.

Greg tried to wield back, forcing the motor into angry howling. But the backwheels were hanging free and there was no chance.

Sylar glanced at Mohinder, waiting for him to call him back after all. To decide against going through with it. But Mohinder didn´t. And so Sylar raised his hand, hesitating one last time.

"Do it." Mohinder said. And Sylar pushed.

It didn´t need much to make the Dodge slip over the edge for good. They heard the motor roar one last time and then the backlights vanished out of their sight. Metal was shrieking, when the bodywork slid against rocks and they could hear some of those rocks rumble down the ravine. And then the final crash, when the Dodge got stuck, right between the two walls of that tiny pit. One hundred and fifty feet above the ground.

Mohinder started to move toward the pit. He sensed Sylar by his side, more that he saw him. And the same way he sensed the sudden stop in the other man´s pace.

Mohinder glanced back, and saw Sylar stare into the distance. When he followed his gaze he realized that the storm they´d seen earlier had grown. And it was closing in. It was heading right for them.

Mohinder stood there, frozen, and could do nothing but stare.

It´s her, he thought, incoherently. Unbelievable after all those years. It´s really her. And she was coming. For him. His heart was pounding.

"Mohinder?" Sylar addressed him, startling him into a jump. "Maybe we should go. Take cover somewhere."

But Mohinder looked over at the pit. "No." he said. "We have to end this."


	10. Am I To Die?

**Am I To Die?**

Mohinder glanced down, to the hanging truck, at the two boys who were still trying to get free, out of this uncomfortable and very unfortunate position. Greg pulled his gun, aiming up at them, through the windshield, and shot. The glass shattered. His bullet didn´t hit.

Sylar was about to tear the gun out of his hand, telekinetically, but Mohinder stopped him.

"Let me handle that." he said, and jumped, landing on the roof of the car.

Greg and Rickie flinched, but before Greg could decide to shoot through the roof, Mohinder reached down, grabbing his gun. Another shot rang out, fired aimlessly into the air. Mohinder grabbed the gun tighter, deforming it and tore it from the boy´s hand, throwing it away. After that, he climbed down, onto the hood and grabbed Greg, pulling him out and pushing him against the wall.

"You." he snarled into his face but Greg only stared at him, disgusted.

"What kind of freaks are you?" he cried.

Mohinder chuckled. "Oh, didn´t you know?" he asked him. "We are the monsters that used to hunt you in your dreams since you were a little kid."

He glanced at Sylar briefly, meeting a positively surprised gaze, both brows raised.

Greg´s reaction was not that positive. He was just creeped out. Good. Seems Mohinder actually hit a mark with that comment and alone the fact that this little improvisation of his had had that much of an effect, made him chuckle, amused.

"What are you gonna do with us?" Rickie asked, from inside the car.

Before Mohinder or Sylar could give a response, Greg was back to his old kiss-my-ass self.

"You can try talking this crap." he spat. "But you guys couldn´t do shit about us so far."

Mohinder grabbed his collar tighter. "So far we were trying to be patient." he informed Greg. "To give you a chance for redemption. But you don´t seem to appreciate this, Gregory. So now … the time of playing nice is over. I tried to give you a chance, but you don´t want it. And quiet frankly, I don´t see you getting better any time soon. You´ll just keep making the same mistakes over and over again, throwing your life away and everything that could be good about it. So what´s the point in sparing your life? Tell me. Why should I let you live?"

"You let him go, you hear me?" the other boy demanded, his voice quavering.

Mohinder turned to him. The kid was holding something in his hand, ready to throw it.

"Let him go." he repeated. "Or I´ll …" But in this moment an invisible hand pulled the pin out of the hand grenade and Rickie´s voice died in his throat.

"You want to blow yourself up?" Sylar asked. When the boy only stood there, not moving, the killer smiled, nodding. "What do you think will happen if you throw that thing?" he asked him and then his smile was gone in an instant. "Do it." he demanded. "DO IT!"

"Do it, Rick!" Greg shouted, startling not only Sylar. "Don´t let this asshole intimidate you."

"I didn´t even think you´d know such a complicated word." Mohinder mentioned but Greg didn´t answer him. Instead he shouted at his pal in the car.

"Do it, Rick!"

And Rick actually intimated enough at this point, obeyed.

Sylar deflected the grenade, but once again the wind came in his way. The grenade flew not half as far as he would have liked it. Unfortunately the ravine also was not half as stable as he would have liked it. When the explosion happened, half of the edge came down, turning into an avalanche, and the Dodge started sliding.

Mohinder was swaying, trying not to slip and fall, and then a hand grabbed him and pulled him upwards, back over the edge to saver ground. Hadn´t he been clinging to Greg´s shirt so tight, the boy would have slipped away, just like the car, but so he landed on the ground, along with Mohinder. And Sylar.

Down in the pit, Rickie wasn´t that lucky though. They only heard him scream, over the noise of the avalanche and then the rumbling was just too loud, the voice of the boy fading quickly.

Somewhere in the distance they believed to hear other screams too, high and pitching, familiar, but that could be an illusion.

And then there was the distant rumbling of rocks hitting the ground. And the crashing metal.

The wind was roaring with thunder, as if angry about what had just happened. Bolts of lightning came flashing down, more and more and when Mohinder turned around, he saw not only one but three tornados, illuminated by red angry flashes.

"Oh, my god." he breathed. "She´s coming for me."

"What?" Sylar stared at him, irritated.

"She knows I´m here." Mohinder shook his head, not able to take his eyes off the storms. "I should have never come here. She wants to kill me."

"Mohinder, you´re talking crazy. This storm has nothing to do with you."

"Don´t you see? The storm got worse each time I showed up. She hates me and now she´s coming for me. I´m the reason why she´s so angry. My father …"

"Is dead, Mohinder. And Alice knows that."

A shot rang out, making them swirl around.

"Freeze!" Lassiter shouted, from the other side of the pit. Bennet was with him and so was Juliet O´Hara, their car parked behind them. The junior detective seemed to be the only one reasonable enough to be scared by the storms heading for them.

Before Mohinder had a chance to understand what just happened, Greg decided to use the distraction. He attacked.

"You killed him, you …" he cried but Sylar raised a hand and threw him, over the pit, at Lassiter and Bennet.

Another shot rang out, but the bullet vanished into the darkness of the night.

The wind got stronger and stronger and Mohinder went down to his knees, for safety. So did Sylar.

"CARLTON!" Juliet shouted as loud as she could. "WE NEED TO TAKE COVER!"

Right in this moment, when everyone but her was on the ground, the wind was getting stronger yet again, and just blew her off her feet. For a moment she was sliding over the ground, screaming and trying to grab something, and then she just slipped away, over the edge.

"O´Hara!"

"Juliet!" Sylar was back on his feet before Mohinder even knew he´d yelled, running for the edge.

He never reached it. The wind slowed him down, as if to keep him from saving her, forcing him back to his knees, and Sylar had to give in. Even with all his abilities he was powerless against this force.

And then a body came flying, back from out of the darkness. Two bodies.

Nathan did his best to land on his feet, but the storm just made it impossible to avoid a crash landing. He and Juliet rolled in the dirt, grunting at the impact. Peter landed right after them, a little more steady, but he got thrown down too, as soon as his feet touched the ground.

Sylar stumbled up, over to them, and fell again, crawling the rest of the way. He met Juliet´s eyes, shaken and scared, but alive and all right, her nod still as strong as always and he closed his eyes, thanking all the gods that were out there for this miracle.

The three tornados were almost at them now, the wind blowing so strong even ducking down didn´t help much. Not anymore. Sylar took Juliet´s hand and dragged her behind, to the same rocks that already shielded Nathan and Peter. Mohinder reached them a second before Sylar did.

Juliet followed, glancing under her arm to check on Lassiter and Bennet. She only saw a leg vanishing behind a rock, and the cars, starting to slide, over the ground until they got lifted into the air, to vanish in the storm.

Sylar shoved Juliet behind the rocks, and glanced around, to Mohinder. But the scientist didn´t duck down as deep as he could, like the others. Instead he stared right into the storm, eyes wide open, hand gripping the rock. But not for safety. It looked more like anxiety, as if he was waiting for something.

Sylar grabbed his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he shouted but Mohinder just wouldn´t turn his eyes off the storm. "Mohinder!"

"This is my fault." the scientist cried.

"What?"

"She came for me and now everyone's in danger."

"Stop saying that."

"It´s true."

"No, it´s not." Sylar forced him to turn around. "These storms started long before you even got here." he told him. "She´s not only after you, Mohinder. This is about all of us. If it´s anyone´s fault then it is mine. For coming here in the first place."

Finally his words seemed to get through to the geneticist. Mohinder lowered his eyes, for a moment, thinking. When he looked up, his eyes were awake, as if he just realized something.

"You can stop it." he cried, startling Sylar. "What?"

"Annabel could do it. You have her power."

At this name, Sylar finally remembered. The woman from Austria.

"She made rainstorms turn around." he recalled, objecting. "This is not …"

"This is not much different." Mohinder insisted. "You´ve gotta try or we´re all dead."

Sylar looked into the eyes of the man before him, half pleading, half demanding, and so open. He was right. He had to try it. Or he could as well jump into the storm on his own, waiting for it to tear him apart.

He turned around. "Peter! I need your help!"

The younger man pushed past his brother, to hear what was needed of him.

"We might be able to stop this." Sylar shouted and Peter understood at once.

"What must I do?" he asked and Sylar took his hand, waiting for the transfer to happen.

"Just do what I do."

Peter nodded, ready for whatever he had to do, and faced the storm, together with Sylar.

**...**

Shawn was digging his face into the fabric of Gus´ shirt, eyes closed tightly, arms over his head. He tried to wish Gus and himself away, so that when he opened his eyes again they´d lie on the beach before their office in Santa Barbara, and not in the sand of a desert that was about to be swallowed whole by a herd of killer tornados.

But of course that didn´t happen. Because he was no teleporter like Hiro. He could only persuade people. People, not storms. Unfortunately that was something he couldn´t do.

He glanced up, over his arms, even though he knew it was a bad idea. The storms were right ahead, almost above them. And they roared. Goddammit he didn´t know a tornado could roar. But it did. As if it was angry. And then it skipped back a little.

Wait. A tornado that skipped back? Was that even possible? It roared again, and came on once again. Shawn wanted to scream, believing that now finally it was over. But then the storm halted again, as if there was an invisible barrier before the mountain, something it couldn´t cross. That must be the reason for that angry snarl, the storms made. They really were pissed off.

"Shawn!" he heard the voice of their missing time traveler, coming from his right.

"Hiroooo!" he shouted when he spotted him, ducking behind a rock and Hiro waved, happy that he´d found them. "Man, am I glad to see you." Shawn shouted. "I thought you were already dead."

"I failed to find Alice." Hiro shouted back at him, over the distance that was between them. Barely ten feet but in that wind it sounded as if he was some dozen yards away.

"I guessed something like that." Shawn answered. "Hey! I´d really like to hear that. But do you think we could jump outahere first? Just a suggestion of course."

Hiro nodded and was about to come over to them, but in this moment, the storm growled again, lower this time, as if it was tired of roaring. When they looked at it, it seemed as if it was moving away. Dammit, it was moving away.

Beneath Shawn, Gus grunted, starting to move. Shawn pushed himself up a little to give him space and Gus´ head snapped up, hitting him at the chin.

"Ou!" he cried, stumbling back. "Dude."

"Shawn!" Gus cried, looking around frightened. "What´s going on? Where are we? What …?" he spotted the twisters and immediately opened his mouth, screaming, high and pitching.

"Dude, it´s a little late for that." Shawn cried. "They´re already leaving, don´t you see that?"

Gus stopped screaming, glancing at him with a startled frown. And of course he could see that Shawn was right. Whatever had caused it, but the tornados were truly seriously heading away from them. As if they´d lost interest.

"We have to take cover." Gus struggled to his feet. "Before they change direction again."

"Dude, calm down." Shawn cried. "I don´t think they´ll …"

He halted when he heard another groan, coming from behind them. Gus had heard it too and so had Hiro. They turned around, to see a boy, crawling over the stones that had blocked the entrance to the ravine they´d only barely escaped. He was bleeding almost everywhere and when he pulled himself forward to roll down the heap of rocks, it was clear that his legs weren´t working anymore.

"Oh, god." Gus gulped and hurried over to the kid, awkwardly cradling him in his arms. Rickie coughed, spitting blood.

"Dude." Shawn exclaimed and didn´t know what else to say.

"We need to get him to a hospital." Gus cried and Hiro knelt down beside them, ready to take the boy´s arm.

"T... Tell …" Rickie hitched under his breath, looking at them pleadingly. "Tell my … my dad … I … I tried to … to be reasonable … for a change. That I did … did not mess up this time."

Shawn met Gus´ eyes, already starting to tear up, helplessly.

"Please." Rickie begged.

"I will." Hiro promised him. "I´ll tell your father that you´re a real hero."

The kid whimpered, his lip quavering and shook his head. "He´ll know … it´s a … lie."

His last word died on his lips in a weak breath. And then he was dead. Just like that, his eyes still open, wet with the tears he´d cried upon his dying wish. A wish that he´d known would never come true.

**...**

At the top of the mountain the people slowly dared to come back out of their hiding spaces, glancing after the departing storms. Sylar and Peter stood at the edge, panting, sweat running down their faces.

"We made it." Peter managed.

"Yeah."

Sylar turned around, to the others. He might not be able to say much, but he had enough energy left to take Juliet in his arms, gratefully.

"Are you all right?" he asked her.

"Yeah." she assured him, still buzzing. "Yeah, I´m fine. What just happened?"

"My aunt just happened." Peter told her, turning to his brother when Nathan´s hand lay down on his shoulder.

"You did good." he said, generous with his praise for a change. But Peter didn´t care. All he cared about was, that they were alive. And save.

"Where´s Mohinder?" Sylar asked, searching the geneticist.

"I don´t know." Juliet looked around too. "He ran off, I thought he´d take cover somewhere else. I …"

"Mohinder!"

"You stay here, pal." Lassiter shouted, on the other side, but it was only the boy, he´d yelled at. "I had one hell of a night and you better don´t push me." He reached into his pocket and cuffed the boy.

Sylar kept searching the place. No Mohinder.

"Goddamn idiot." he cursed and glanced over the plain, at the sky, still turbulent. Juliet tried to see what he was seeing and failed. And then Sylar hissed, through gritted teeth.

"Son of a bitch."

He bolted, and was gone.

"Sylar?" Peter cried, startled. "What …?"

"Pete." Nathan held him back, once again, staring ahead with frightened eyes. Just in this moment another storm came jumping down, out of the sky, roaring like a predator, once again. And it once again headed straight for them.

"I think she´s not done yet."

Peter faced the storm again, no time left to think about the fact that this time he´d have to do it alone, without Sylar´s help. The storm roared, angrily. And Peter focused, balling up all the energy he´d left in him, for his brother, and all the others behind him.

**...**

Mohinder was running, away from the mountain, out into the plain. He´d left the others as soon as he´d seen Sylar and Peter taking care of the storm. But he could never be sure. They could fail, and Alice would kill them. But if he left them behind …

And as it seemed he´d been right. There was a new storm already, again heading for the mountain. Mohinder ran. He had to get away from there, from them. He couldn´t allow …

Something came flying at him, full speed, and hit him from aside, knocking him off his feet.

Mohinder grunted when they hit the ground, and pushed Sylar off.

"What are you doing?" he demanded to know, shouting over the storm.

Sylar just stared at him. "What are _you_ doing?" he shouted back.

"What does it look like?"

"Is that a serious question? Because it looks exceptionally stupid."

"I´m just trying to lure her away from the others."

"Because you think she´s after you? Are you insane?"

"Tell me you don´t see what she´s doing!"

"You think this is all about you? For gods sake, the world is not circling around you, Mohinder. She could as well be after me."

"All right, let´s separate and see who she´s following. One way or the other, the others will be save."

Sylar shook his head, irritated, totally thrown off by that suggestion. Before he had a chance to even remotely think about a response, the roaring of the storm made them both swirl around. At the mountain the storm turned around, heading for them, just the way Mohinder had expected it. It disappeared into the clouds, for two seconds, before it jumped out of the sky again, barely a yard away from them.

Mohinder and Sylar ran, the storm just behind them.

**...**

Back at the mountain the others only saw the storm changing direction, heading away. Juliet jumped at her partner, hugging him, so glad they were save at last. Peter just stood there, shaken by the hand on his shoulder, and allowed his brother to embrace him too, more comforting than praising. And finally he realized how much his legs were shaking.

His eyes dropped, and he spotted something, at the bottom of the mountain. Someone was down there. People. And then they were up here, with them. Peter only heard a rushing sound, like a gush of wind. A familiar sound.

"Shawn." Juliet cried, hugging him tightly. "Oh my god, are you all right? I told you to stay at the camp."

"You should know me better than that by now." was the dry response.

A few more words were exchanged, mostly awe and disbelieve over what had happened. Until the younger Petrelli spoke up again.

"We need to find Sylar and Mohinder." he said. "They might need help."

Shawn hadn´t even realized that these two were missing. Until now. Peter was swaying, just a little, as if disturbed by the glances he got. Everyone seemed to look at him, as if he were crazy.

"Where do you want to look for them?" Nathan asked.

"They can´t have gotten very far." Peter insisted but his big brother only shook his head, full of pity, as if Peter was some poor guy who didn´t understand a simply truth. Shawn was so pulled in, watching them stare at each other, that he, for a moment, completely forgot about the two missing people.

"Pete." Nathan started, but Peter hit his hand away, angrily. "You want me to stay here and do nothing?" he cried.

"I wouldn´t go out there to look for them." Greg, the kid, announced, making them all turn to him, startled. He had a nasty grin on his face, one that made Shawn want to punch him. His friend had just died down there at the bottom of this mountain, and he was still an ass.

"No one asked you for your opinion." he said, his voice full of disgust.

"Maybe you should." the kid replied, maliciously. "Because I don´t think this storm went away because you told her to."

At this finally Shawn understood. "What did you see?" he breathed, not sure if he wanted to hear it.

When Greg only shrugged, Peter suddenly lunged at him, grabbing his collar, before his brother had a chance to stop him. Nathan lay a hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

"Pete."

"What did you see?" the younger brother yelled at the kid.

"I saw an asshole that got what he deserved." was the biting answer.

Shawn gasped, silently, staring over the plain, where the storm had vanished into the dark.

So did Peter. A few moments went by, filled with stunned silence, and then Peter bolted. Only this time Nathan was quicker. He grabbed him, keeping him from setting off.

"Let me." Peter tried to shake his hand off. "I have to find them. I said let me go."

"Pete." Nathan held tight. "Pete. Stop it. Pete." He turned him around, made him face him, and finally Peter stopped fighting. "Let it go." Nathan spoke. "You can´t help them. If he´s really right, then …" he shook his head. "You just can´t help them."

The younger brother, panted, staring, unable to believe the inevitable.

"I´m sorry." Nathan spoke, honestly. "I´m sorry about Suresh but …"

"They could be alive." Peter insisted, against all hope.

"Sylar can´t die anyway." Shawn dared to support him, if no one else did.

"But he could be buried alive." Lassiter mentioned, with a shrug. "Or ripped apart by the force. If we´re lucky."

"Carlton."

"What? Storms can do that."

"I need to go." Peter decided, but his determination was faltering.

"And where do you want to look for them?" Nathan asked. "In the whole desert? Pete. Let it go. Lassiter´s right. You can´t help them anymore."

Shawn watched Peter struggle, inwardly, and didn´t know what to think himself. This was impossible. They couldn´t just give up. They mustn´t. Not after all they´d been through.

Nathan pulled his brother in, hugged him, and finally Peter seemed to succumb.

"I´m sorry." the elder brother said. "I know you didn´t want this."

When he let go of Peter, the younger man looked more tired than just tired, and sadder than sad.

"Let´s go home, Pete." Nathan said. "There are living people waiting for us."

Shawn saw Peter choke, but in the end he nodded, reluctantly but he nodded.

Juliet lay an asking hand on Shawn´s arm, and he padded it, reassuringly. As if there was something he could her reassure about.

"We can ask Molly where Sylar is, as soon as we get hold of a phone again." he heard Bennet´s faint voice, a few feet away from them. But somehow Shawn doubted that this would lead to anything.

He lay a hand around Juliet, and gently led her away from the edge, to follow the others. Maybe Nathan was right. There was nothing they could do here. Not anymore. And they´d been here way too long anyway. It was about time they went back home. To where they belonged.

Juliet was freezing, snuggling deeper into him, for warmth, and comfort.

"Don´t worry, Jules." he spoke, quietly. "I don´t think they´re dead. Neither of them."

"How can you know that?"

"Aaah I don´t know." Shawn gazed behind himself, over the plain where the first rays of sunlight just appeared at the horizon. "It´s just a feeling."

**End of Volume Eight**

**...**

**Volume Nine**

– **Angel´s Demon –**

It´s early in the morning, the sun shining through the door, just as it opens, to let the people step in. So many of them. But it´s only one person among them Angela Petrelli sees right now.

"Nathan." she cries, her voice barely a breath, and she reaches out for her son, to pull him into a tight hug. This is it. This is what she´d been dreaming about, hoping for, even though there´d been no hope left, ever since Sylar had taken her son away from her. And now it was real. He was here, at last. Alive and well.

Her eyes go around, over all the people that came with Nathan. Peter of course, Noah, the detectives from Santa Barbara and their fake psychic friend – his smile is so bright, one might think it was his family that got reunited here. Hiro, the time traveller and Matt Parkman. Molly, the only one in this gathering who seems absent minded. But Angela can´t quiet bring herself to care right now. Right now all she cares about is her son, her eldest. Nathan.

She lets go of him, holding him at arms length, and he smiles down at her.

"You didn´t think you could get rid of me?" he asks, making her laugh. But there´s something in his eyes that lets her laughter die in her throat. His gaze. So intense, as if he waits for a very specific response from her.

"Did you?"

Angela gapes. She knows, just knows, that her son, would never look at her like that, not in that moment. This gaze. She´d seen it before. It made her blood go cold, like ice, her heart racing in her chest. And Nathan smiles, at her realization.

"No." she can barely breath it, skipping back, so scared, and when she glances around, the people Nathan brought along are lying dead, all around her. Peter – oh god – the detectives, Juliet and Lassiter, the later still holding his gun as if he´d tried to fight and failed. Noah, whose throat was cut just as Nathan´s back then. The psychic, his neck broken, head turned so far he looks like a grotesque imitation of Linda Blair in The Exporcist. Hiro. Parkman. The girl. All of them. Dead.

Their heads sawed open. And there´s blood everywhere.

Nathan´s face is calm, placid, when she looks at him, but it convulses, deforms, worms crawling visibly under his skin. Angela doesn´t stay to watch him shift. She turns and runs out, straight into the next trap in this nightmare. Suresh is standing tall before her, his face even darker than ever, his eyes as cold as stone, and full of hate as it seems. Hate that isn´t only for her.

His hands are bloody, dropping rubies on her bright carpet as he steps forward, and suddenly Angela understands. The heads, of the dead people around her, they´re not sawed open. They were broken, cracked open, like nuts.

"What did you do, doctor?" she asks, but Mohinder doesn´t react to her horror.

"I was looking for something." he tells her, tossing away something that looks suspiciously like the top of a head.

Angela keeps backing up, until she gets stopped, by the second man in this room. Sylar´s hands lay down on her shoulders, holding her in place, even more than the doctor´s dark gaze. He could slice into her head just with that gaze, she thinks, almost feels it already.

"Why …" she breaths. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because there are no answers." he speaks and raises his hand. "And I´m tired of the questions."

"No."

"It´s better that way." he tells her almost soothingly. "You´ll feel no more pain."

"No!" Angela struggles, against Sylar´s iron grip, but Mohinder´s hands fold around her head.

"It´ll only be a moment." he assures her.

"You can´t do this!" she yells, in her fear, and indeed Mohinder halts, for a moment.

"Believe me, I tried." he says. "I tried not to. I resisted, fought, all for nothing. At a certain point you have to accept that there are things you just can´t fight. That you can´t always save the world. Because we can´t. No one can."

"What are you talking about?" Angela gasps, a much bigger fear creeping up in her, than of her own death. Mohinder raises a doubting brow.

"You really wanna know?"

Angela isn´t sure if she wants to. There´s just something in his eyes that makes her doubt it too. Maybe the truth is just too horrible to face it. Maybe it´d be better to just close her eyes and pray for a quick death. But she can´t close her eyes. His gaze just keeps her trapped. And then the ground starts to shake, the walls of her home cracking, breaking apart, all around her. Mohinder doesn´t even flinch, never breaks eye contact with her the entire time, until the ground opens and swallows them all.

Angela wakes up, gasping loudly, sweat drenching her gown, making her hair stick to her face. The room around her is dark, and silent. And when she switches on the lights, the walls are intact. No sign of an earthquake that would change this any time soon.

Slowly her heartbeat calms down.


	11. Author's Note

**Author´s Note**

Let´s have a seat, you and I. Let´s talk. About the story. Like we did so many times before. Shell we?

What do I want to say about this piece? Other than it being an actual piece. Compared to the other stories it´s quiet short, I know. But there´s a reason for that. You see this story was initially just meant to be a bridge, between the last one and the one that could follow. Because I felt it was necessary for everyone to deal with themselves and especially each other, to come to some terms before we could handle a new story.

And so we got what you just read. A story about dealing, with the past, and how it effects the present. Dealing with emotions and their effect on the present. Dealing with decisions and how they used to effect us in the past. Things that just need time to be figured out. Sending them on a quest seemed to be the perfect way to give them the needed time to do so.

Peter needed to deal with the fact that his brother was back to life. He´d already forgiven Sylar for murdering Nathan. And now Nathan was back, no clue about what had been going on the past few years, and the catharsis his brother had been through.

Someone wondered if it would be possible for Nathan to ever forgive Sylar, the way Peter did. Honestly, I don´t think so. That _would_ be weird and in my mind it wouldn´t quiet fit his character. But that´s only my opinion. It could happen differently in the future, and if it does, it won´t be my decision but Nathan´s. Anything can happen. But that´s entirely in the future.

Shawn too had some dealing to do, of course. Having lived another life, with a wife (Abigail), expecting a child and then loosing all this, on purpose almost, by helping Hiro to reset the timeline. He of course dealt with that in his very own way. By just taking a decision. The way he explained it to Mohinder, he simply decided to focus on the life that was meant to be. Although I´m sure it wasn´t half as simple for him as he claimed it to be.

But of course he claimed this to convince Mohinder, who had probably the most difficult dealing to do in this story. Because he had to try and deal with himself, and how he regarded things. His own life. And the deception he´d experienced all those years, over and over again.

If you thought his reaction, especially towards Sylar, to be over the top, try to imagine how you´d feel if you had to live with memories of two different lives. One where you trusted someone and one where you were deceived like he was. That´s enough to confuse you into total refusal. And that´s what he did. He simply refused. Where Shawn simply accepted, Mohinder simply closed up.

On a sidenote, this reaction of his was something I didn´t foresee while planning and writing the last story. In my plan, after the timeline was repaired, all of them would have simply regained their old memories and would have been back to normal, just like before. I had a scene in mind, where they´d dig out Sylar and the two of them would make some fun of Shawn, before they´d go back home to the present. But then Mohinder got confused, about everything, and things changed, once again without my intention. I simply didn´t consider how much those memories would effect him.

You could say this lack of consideration from my side, was the reason "Redemption" came about.

About the story itself: If you haven´t guessed it by now, especially with Shawn having said it already, the movie that inspired the style of "Redemption" was, of course: Hoodwinked. An absolutely amazing animated movie about the story of red riding hood, told in a totally new and absolutely hilarious way.

If you haven´t seen it, seriously, watch it. It has just everything. Great humor, parodistic and clever, action and stunning great voice actors. Fun fact, in the sequel "Hood vs. Evil" it´s Hayden Panettiere who speaks Red Riding Hood. No joke.

The reason why it inspired me to this story, is the way the movie´s telling it´s own story. Starting with the ending (in Grandmother´s house) and then telling each character´s story of how they got there and why, revealing bit by bit what really happened. This way of telling a story strictly from peoples individual point of views, makes it so interesting to watch. You simply want to know more and more.

I tried to do this by showing the end of it all, in the desert, and then start telling how it all started.

First Lassiter and Noah who discover that everyone has vanished all the sudden, and starting to track them down. As soon as they find Shawn at their target, the second story begins. And after that we learn each party´s individual quest, while they try to find their way towards the big finale. Heading for a disaster without knowing it.

You might have noticed that I tried to write sort of a Disaster movie here. References go to "Twister" of course (that´s how the red Dodge found it´s way into the story) and a little bit of "Daylight" and (what else could it be?) "Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen", simply because it´s finale plays in Egypt.

I believe I never had that many cars, almost becoming characters of their own in my stories before. The Dodge, the X-Trail, even the sedan. And what did I do? I destroyed them all. Damn. I still can´t believe I trashed them all. Especially that Dodge. Because, honestly, did you ever stand next to such a beast? It´s huge. Only a real truck´s bigger.

Okay, where was I? Ah, yeah, I killed the cars. And almost the cast. But only almost. They survived, because, if you remember story number … I believe it was four, whilst Mohinder and Sylar were still in C.E.R.N. searching out people with abilities in Europe. They´d visited a woman in Austria, who had the power to make rainstorms turn around. Funny as it is, back then, the meeting with her reminded Mohinder of his meeting with Alice.

About Alice herself. If you were disappointed she didn´t really appear in the story, I can only say sorry. She was never meant to show up. She didn´t want to. In this story she was meant to be this ominous power in the background, the one that made the storms. Like a goddess of wrath and anger. If you want to go even deeper into interpretation, you could say she channeled the anger the characters were feeling throughout the story. But since I don´t analyze, I won´t say that. Alice was simply pissed that so many people invaded her ground, period.

The kids, that were crazy enough to chase Sylar, were simple necessity, because I needed some actual antagonists. And a-holes like these exist, more than enough. I figured some might be idiotic enough to think they could hunt down this guy that came into their city, just for the heck of it.

Greg having an ability, was to leave it unclear for a while, whether or not Sylar was the real culprit here. I´m not sure how much I could fool you. But even if not, that´s okay. I found it hilarious that some people actually said right from the start, that he had to be innocent, that there had to be an explanation that proved him to be wrongfully accused. That´s just great, really. But it also means I have to improve my ability of fooling you. Seems it doesn´t work that good anymore.

Anyway, the story wasn´t so much about fooling you. It was about dealing, and coming to terms. And that´s how it happened. They all came together in the end, once again, after having spent a really eventful day and night. To end the story with the first sunlight at the horizon seemed a fitting image, after we started in the middle of a very deadly night. See it as a sign of hope, just because we can.

What? Oh. You want to know what happened to Sylar and Mohinder, if they escaped the storm and how? Well, I can´t tell you. Not because I don´t want to. But I don´t know. Seriously. I didn´t see what happened. I only saw the storm chasing them and then … nothing. I guess, like Shawn, that they survived, but how … that´s up to your imagination. If you want to imagine that.

Oh, yeah, and the dream. Angela can dream the future as we all know. But even though she´s kind of a psychic, we also know that her dreams can be blurry, concerning the details. Sometimes dreams only speak in riddles, pictures, metaphors. So if you ask me what her dream is supposed to mean, I once again have to answer, I don´t know. Interpreting dreams is a tricky thing.

I know what will happen of course, because I wrote the story. But this particular dream of hers, is a mystery, even to me. It came about, without my doing. I started writing it, and then it just happened before my eyes. So I guess it has a meaning, but which one … I can´t tell. Not for sure.

So … maybe you find out, what it means, in the next story. See you then. And thanks for reading.


End file.
